Sébastien Le Prestre, seigneur de Vauban, later styling himself as the marquis de Vauban, commonly referred to as Vauban, was a French military engineer and Marshal of France who worked under Louis XIV. He is generally considered the greatest engineer of his time, and one of the most important in European military history.
Besançon is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerland.
Longwy is a commune in the French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, administrative region of Grand Est, northeastern France.
François Nicolas Benoît, Baron Haxo was a French Army general and military engineer during the French Revolution and First Empire. Haxo became famous in the Siege of Antwerp in 1832. He is the nephew of revolution era General Nicolas Haxo of Étival-Clairefontaine and Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in Lorraine, France.
Bitche is a commune in Moselle department, in the region of Grand Est in northeastern France. It is the Pays de Bitche's capital city, and the seat of the Canton of Bitche and the Pays de Bitche community of communes.
Blaye is a commune and subprefecture in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. For centuries, Blaye was a particularly convenient crossing point for those who came from the north and went to Bordeaux or further south, to Spain and Portugal. Fortified since antiquity, this eminently strategic site located on the bank of a large river, was modernized at the end of the 17th century, thanks to Vauban. In 1685, the Commissaire general des fortifications of Louis XIV proposed the construction of a real lock on the Gironde in order to "take control of the river" and to hold Bordeaux in case of a revolt. It is then that the citadel of Blaye was built, constituting the major element of the estuary control system. Dominating the urban landscape, this imposing building has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008, as part of a group of structures engineered by Vauban, in testimony to their global influence on military architecture and planning over the next few centuries.
Mont-Louis is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.
Saint-Martin-de-Ré is a commune in the western French department of Charente-Maritime.
Phalsbourg is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France, with a population of about 5,000.
Pierre René Jean Baptiste Henri Brocard was a French meteorologist and mathematician, in particular a geometer. His best-known achievement is the invention and discovery of the properties of the Brocard points, the Brocard circle, and the Brocard triangle, all bearing his name.
Seyne is a commune in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, a department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in south-east France. It is roughly 30 km north of Digne.
Marsal is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.
The Fortifications of Vauban is a UNESCO World Heritage Site made up of 12 groups of fortified buildings and sites along the borders of France. They were designed by renowned military architect Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633–1707) during the reign of King Louis XIV. These sites include a variety of fortifications, ranging from citadels, to mountain batteries and sea fortifications, to bastion walls and towers. In addition, the site includes cities built from scratch by Vauban and communication towers. These sites were chosen because they exemplify Vauban's work, bearing witness to the influence of his designs on military and civilian engineering on a global scale from the 17th century to the 20th century.
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.
Jean Leurechon was a French Jesuit priest, astronomer, and mathematician, known for inventing the pigeonhole principle and naming the thermometer.
Blaise François Pagan (1603–1665) was a French soldier and military engineer who served in the army of Louis XIII. His military career ended in 1642 when he lost his sight and in 1645, he published Les Fortifications; this became the dominant text of its era on military fortifications and significantly influenced Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban.
The County of Clermont-en-Argonne was a feudal domain in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages and in the Kingdom of France during the early modern period. It was centred on the fortified hilltop town of Clermont-en-Argonne in the diocese of Verdun. The term Clermontois can refer both to the region around Clermont and to the people of the town and region.
Simon Vollant was a 17th-century French engineer, entrepreneur and architect ennobled in 1685.
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.
Charles Errard the Elder (1570–1628) was a French painter. He also served as painter-in-ordinary to the French king and designer of fortifications in Brittany. He is also notable as father of Charles Errard the Younger, also an artist.
