Architecture of Provence - Castles and Fortresses (15th-16th Centuries)

Castles and Fortresses (15th-16th Centuries)

After Marseille was annexed to France by Francois I in 1481, the Château d'if (1527–1529) was built on one of the islands of the Frioul Archipelago in the Bay of Marseille to protect the city from attacks from the sea. It was soon turned into a prison; During the Wars of Religion (1562–1598) it held some 3500 Huguenots, or French Protestant prisoners. It is best known as the prison of the fictional Count of Monte Cristo of Alexandre Dumas, père.

The Chateau of Tarascon, in the Bouches-du-Rhône Department, was begun in 1400 by Louis II of Anjou,and finished by his son, Rene.

The Citadel of Sisteron, was built on a rocky spur overlooking the Durance River on the strategic route through the Alps to the Mediterranean. A Roman fort and a feudal castle first occupied the site. Then, from 1590 to 1597, Jean Erard,the military architect of king Henry IV, built a new kind of fortification designed to defeat armies with cannon and modern weapons. It featured walls laid out in a sawtooth pattern of recesses and salients,so all parts of the wall could be covered by gunfire; terraces and trenches to slow approaching armies; and interior walls and fortified gates to subdivide the fortress and prevent attackers from capturing it all in one attack. Many of these features were adapted and improved a century later by the military architect Vauban.