En un regard
Le château en bref
At the gates of Basel, on the left bank of the Rhine, Huningue served for nearly a century and a half as one of the bolts securing the kingdom's eastern frontier. In 1679, on Louvois's advice, Louis XIV decided to build a fortified town there to control a crossing of the river; Vauban drew up the plan, and the engineer Jacques Tarade directed the works, carried out from 1680 to 1682 and followed by reinforcements until 1686. The fortress withstood several sieges: in 1796–1797, under the defence of Abbatucci, and then between 1813 and 1815, when Chancel and Barbanègre resisted the allied armies. After the Second Treaty of Paris, the town was dismantled from 1815 to 1817, at the request of the Swiss Confederation, which considered it a threat. The ramparts have almost entirely disappeared, but the town's regular layout, its place d'armes and the former Intendance building, now a historical and military museum, preserve its memory. A Vauban trail allows visitors to discover this heritage across the town.