 La Porte de Neptune, which provides access from the east into the Citadel of Calais | |
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| 50°57′16″N1°51′46″E / 50.95444°N 1.86278°E | |
| Location | Calais, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France |
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The Citadel of Calais is a fortress that was initially constructed in the 16th century on the ruins of a medieval castle dating from the 13th century and whose purpose was to defend the city of Calais.
At the end of 1558, upon recovering the region of Calais from England with the aide of Francis, Duke of Guise, it became a priority for all the succeeding kings of France to ensure that Calais would forever remain a part of the Kingdom of France. This priority was also influenced by the city's geographical location and, especially, its proximity to the Spanish Netherlands and England.
To that end, the ancient medieval castle constructed in 1229 which defended Calais, (and which also served as the site of the assassination of the uncle of Richard II, the Duke of Gloucester), and which formed a square fort of six towers with a donjon located northwest of the city, was razed to build on its ruins a new citadel, better suited to the necessities of war during time period.
It was King François II who decided to build the new citadel on the site of the ancient castle. In order to do this, an entire neighborhood was razed. Among the destroyed buildings included hotels, where during English control English lords once stayed, and the church of St. Nicholas. Only the Escalles Hotel, which served as the lodgings for the new commander of the citadel, was spared.
The first stone was laid in 1564, the same year when England recognised Calais as French territory after the French gave Queen Elizabeth I 120,000 crowns as barter. The Italian Giacomo Castriotto and Jean Errard of Bar-le-Duc were two engineers who participated in the work. Errard, who also designed the citadels of Amiens and Doullens, was the creator of the half moon of the Hermitage at the gate of the citadel which is now known as Neptune's Gate. The castle consisted of four towers. A medieval part of the city wall which connected the Carrée Tower and the Pavée Tower still exists today. You can also enter the citadel after passing through the half-moon entrance of the Porte de Secours - Rescue Door, then through the Porte de Boulogne .
Thirty years after the commencement of building, a conflict between France and Spain placed the citadel into the heart of conflict. On April 24, 1596, after Fort Risban and Fort Nieulay had already fallen, the inhabitants of Calais found refuge at the Citadel of Calais in order to flee from the troops of the Albert VII, Archduke of Austria, Governor of the Flanders. However, the hollow wall, because it was filled with sand, fell under the fire of cannons. The northeastern stronghold, assaulted by the enemy, fell in turn despite the fierce resistance led by Michel Patras de Campaigno, nicknamed "the black knight". On April 25, 1596, the Kingdom of France lost Calais.
History accounts for a real massacre and pillage of the city by the Spaniards who were looking for gold and silver. The city remained under Spanish control until May 1598, the date of the Treaty of Vervins, which returned Calais to the crown of France.
Restored to France, Calais and its citadel served as the official residence of the governors of Calais until 1636. Above all, these governors were the object of attentive care on the part of the monarchs of France because of Calais' geographically privileged location.
In 1605, in memory of the church that was destroyed for construction of the citadel, the name of St. Nicholas was given to a small church that was built inside the ramparts. Many marriages, deaths and baptisms were celebrated there until the French Revolution, when the church was converted into a food store. The fortifications were increased under Henri IV.
In May 1632, upon hearing information about a plot to sell Calais to England, Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu visited Calais and planned to make the entire city a gigantic fortress with a large military port. Richelieu's works were smaller than planned: a large arsenal containing a large courtyard surrounded by several buildings to store arms and wheat, three underground housing complexes for soldiers in case of bombing, wheat mills and bread ovens. A column, which incorporates the bust of Richelieu, was also erected in the courtyard. The work was carried out by the Marquis de Saint-Chamond, Melchior Mitte de Chevrieres who constantly asked for funds for the work, while the finances of the state were spent on the troops at war against Lorraine.
In 1658, the reconquest by Louis XIV of Gravelines and Dunkirk reduced the strategic importance of the city of Calais. Nevertheless, during his stays in Calais, Louis XIV confided to Vauban his interest in the rehabilitation of the fortifications of the city, namely the citadel, Fort Risban and the reconstruction of Fort Nieulay, one of the very rare forts-écluses in France. The King returned a few years later, to see the completed work by his famous military engineer.
A Royal French Navy officer, Claude de Forbin was imprisoned for three weeks in 1691 for shooting at a Mr. Fervaquet, who owed Forbin 500 books and who insulted Forbin in the street. [1]
During the French Revolution, some wanted to raze the citadel, claiming that it could serve as a base of support for counter revolutionaries.
Before being transferred to the Tour du Guet, the citadel is where Claude Chappe performed the first tests of his semaphore telegraph.
In the 19th century, the citadel had a barracks with a capacity of 1,000 troops, two tanks, many underground bunkers, powder magazines, grocery stores and stables. The southern rampart, built in the Middle Ages, was doubled to include stables and, in wartime, to house troops. A semi-circular vaulted powder magazine, designed in the Séré de Rivières system style of Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières, was built under the bastion of the old port at the end of the 19th century.
The first bombs fell on Calais on May 10, 1940, and then on May 21, 1940. The citadel was placed in a state of defense. The Porte de Neptune and the Porte de Boulogne were closed and a command post was installed in the southwest. On the 24th, while the Germans encircled the city, attacks occurred. The 25th was a dark day during which heavy artillery of the enemy fell on the citadel: the stables burned with all their horses, the barracks collapsed to a large extent, and the emergency stations were overflowed. A fire at an oil depot on the west side burned into the Calais sky all day long. Despite the destruction, the defenders rejected the German surrender ultimatum. On the 26th, the casemates trembled under the deluge of bombs falling on the citadel.
The Germans attacked the ramparts with flamethrowers, and went through gaps that began to appear. For lack of ammunition, at 16:30, fighting stopped, making the Germans masters of the place, after a siege that lasted 36 hours. A German officer said, "The citadel did not surrender, it was conquered with arms in hand." More than one building was standing, but all would be razed in the aftermath of the conflict. Many of the defenders of Calais were shot.
The porte de Boulogne or porte de secours dating from the end of the 16th century (and remodeled in the 19th century) and the porte de la Ville or the Hermitage dating from the beginning of the 17th century were inscribed as an historic monuments on February 15, 1939. The ditches and curtain walls of the citadel as well as the half-moon defending the entrance to the city were listed as a historic monument on April 27, 1990. [2]
In the 1960s, the citadel was converted into a sports stadium and school, including athletic fields for football, rugby, tennis courts, shooting stands, and archery. The S.O.C., Stade Olympique de Calais, resides there, and the reserve of the Calais RUFC, played its games and trained there, before the move to the new Stade de l'Épopée, leaving free, for reserve, the facilities of the Stade Julien-Denis. The citadel is now known as the Stade du Souvenir.
Calais is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,625 (2020). Calais overlooks the Strait of Dover, the narrowest point in the English Channel, which is only 34 km (21 mi) wide here, and is the closest French town to England. The White Cliffs of Dover can easily be seen on a clear day from Calais. Calais is a major port for ferries between France and England, and since 1994, the Channel Tunnel has linked nearby Coquelles to Folkestone by rail.
Carcassonne is a French fortified city in the department of Aude, region of Occitania. It is the prefecture of the department.
Boulogne-sur-Mer, often called just Boulogne, is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the Côte d'Opale, a touristic stretch of French coast on the English Channel between Calais and Normandy, and the most visited location in the region after the Lille conurbation. Boulogne is its department's second-largest city after Calais, and the 183rd-largest in France. It is also the country's largest fishing port, specialising in herring.
The First Siege of Boulogne took place from 19 July to 14 September 1544 and the Second Siege of Boulogne took place in October 1544.
Entrevaux is a commune (municipality), former episcopal seat and Latin Catholic titular see in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in southeastern France.
The siege of Calais (1940) was a battle for the port of Calais during the Battle of France. The siege was fought at the same time as the Battle of Boulogne, just before Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) through Dunkirk. After the Franco-British counter-attack at the Battle of Arras, German units were held back to be ready to resist a resumption of the counter-attack on 22 May, despite the protests of General Heinz Guderian, the commander of the XIX Armee Korps, who wanted to rush north up the Channel coast to capture Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk. An attack by part of the XIX Armee Korps was not authorised until 12:40 a.m. on the night of 21/22 May.
The Château de Boulogne-sur-Mer is a castle in the French seaport of Boulogne-sur-Mer, in the Pas-de-Calais département. It houses the Boulogne museum.
Oye-Plage is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France.
The Séré de Rivières system was an ensemble of fortifications built from 1874 along the frontiers, ridges and coasts of France. The fortifications were named after their architect, Brigadier-General Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières. The fortresses were obsolescent by 1914 but were used during the First World War.
The Citadel of Saigon also known as the Citadel of Gia Định was a late 18th-century fortress that stood in Saigon, Vietnam from its construction in 1790 until its destruction in February 1859. The citadel was only used once prior to its destruction, when it was captured by Lê Văn Khôi in 1833 and used in a revolt against Emperor Minh Mạng. It was destroyed in a French naval bombardment as part of the colonization of southern Vietnam which became the French colony of Cochinchina.
The Château de Brest is a castle in Brest, Finistère, France. The oldest monument in the town, it is located at the mouth of the river Penfeld at the heart of the roadstead of Brest, one of the largest roadsteads in the world. From the Roman castellum to Vauban's citadel, the site has over 1700 years of history, holding right up to the present day its original role as a military fortress and a strategic location of the highest importance. It is thus the oldest castle in the world still in use, and was classified as a monument historique on 21 March 1923.
Operation Undergo was an attack by the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division on the German garrison and fortifications of the French port of Calais, during September 1944. A subsidiary operation was executed to capture German long-range, heavy artillery at Cap Gris Nez, which threatened the sea approaches to Boulogne. The operation was part of the Clearing the Channel Coast undertaken by the First Canadian Army, following the success of Operation Overlord and the break-out from Normandy. The assault on Calais used the tactics of Operation Wellhit at Boulogne, sealing the town, bombardments from land, sea and air, followed by infantry assaults supported by armour, including flame-throwing tanks and creeping barrages.
The French siege of Calais in early 1558 was part of the Italian War of 1551–1559 between France and England and their respective allies. It resulted in the seizure of the town and its dependencies by France.
The fortified region of Belfort formed the first line of defense in the Séré de Rivières system of fortifications in the Belfort Gap. Located in northeastern France between Épinal and Besançon, the primary line was built in the late 19th century to deal with advances in artillery that had made older defensive systems obsolete.
The Citadel of Liège was the central fortification of the strategic Belgian city of Liège, Wallonia, until the end of the 19th century. It is located in the Sainte-Walburge neighborhood, 111 metres (364 ft) above the Meuse valley. Together with Dinant, Huy and Namur, the Citadel of Liège forms part of the so-called Meuse Citadels.
Fort Risban is a fort in Calais, France, located on the coast on the Avenue Raymond Poincaré at the port entrance. In English medieval accounts it is Risbanke or Risbank.
Claude Nicholson CB was a British Army officer who fought in the First World War and commanded the defence at the Siege of Calais in the Second World War.
Château de Calais was a 13th century castle constructed to defend the port of Calais, France. It was razed to the ground in 1558, after being recaptured from the English by the French and a citadel built on its ruins.
The Anglo-French War of 1557–1559 was part of the Italian War of 1551–1559. Following the French defeat at the Battle of St. Quentin (1557) England entered the war. The French laid Siege to Calais in response. Following failure in mid-1557, a renewed attack captured the outlying forts of Nieullay and Rysbank and Calais was besieged.
