En un regard
Le château en bref
Arras Citadel, straddling Arras and Achicourt (Pas-de-Calais), is a bastioned lowland fortress designed by Vauban and built from 1668 onwards. Its elongated irregular pentagonal layout, extending towards the countryside, consists of bastions, curtain walls, ditches and glacis, and is entered through the Porte Royale and the Porte Dauphine. Inside are the Chapelle Saint-Louis, the Schramm barracks built in 1680–1682, a powder magazine and various other military buildings. Never besieged, it earned the nickname ‘belle inutile’, or ‘useless beauty’. During the Second World War, 218 members of the Resistance were shot in the ditches, a memory kept alive by the Mur des Fusillés and its memorial. Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2008 together with the fortifications of Vauban, it was transferred by the army in 2010 to the Arras Urban Community, which has set up its headquarters there, along with businesses, housing and leisure facilities. Every summer it hosts the Main Square Festival.
- Époque de construction
- 1668–1672
- Localisation
- Arras, PAS-DE-CALAIS
- Usage actuel
- Propriété de la Communauté urbaine d'Arras : siège de la collectivité, entreprises, logements, loisirs et événements (Main Square Festival) ; espaces publics en accès libre, circuits des bastions et mémorial.