Fortifications of Île d'Aix

En un regard

Le château en bref

The fortifications of Île d'Aix defend the Aix Roads, at the mouth of the Charente estuary, in front of the Rochefort arsenal. The first modern defences, a naval battery, date from 1672 but left no trace. Around 1684, the engineer François Ferry proposed a fort with a tower. Vauban revised the scheme into a tower protected by a tenaille front, two arrowhead bastions, a gorge, a demi-lune and a ditch, around which a small fortified town was to be laid out; it remained unfinished around 1693. The English took the island in 1757 and razed the tower. Around 1779, Montalembert built a timber fort there which withstood an English siege; only a demi-lune and the entrance drum of the gate survive. Napoleon I had the island's defences reinforced (works from 1806 to 1814), and the present structures, fort, ramparts and batteries, date for the most part from the 19th century, following the layouts of Vauban and Ferry. The Fort de la Rade and the town fortifications have been listed as a Monument historique since 1996.