Bayonne

History and description

A town of Roman origin situated where the Adour and Nive rivers meet, six kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean, Bayonne had its own Roman castrum in the 4th and 5th centuries. Abandoned under the Merovingians, and with at least one urban wall since the 12th century, it was besieged by the Spanish on multiple occasions in the 15th-16th and 17th centuries. This prompted Louis XII and Francis I to build a new urban wall and the New castle.
In 1681, Vauban remodelled this ancient site by improving the above installations and designed projects including the citadel and the entrenchment of Saint-Esprit. The works were conducted by the engineer Ferry and completed in 1685. During this construction work, the château Neuf (New castle) was completely renovated and equipped with all the elements required for a citadel worthy of the name: magazines, mills, wells, chapel, as well as a new gate. Twelve hundred soldiers would have been housed in its garrison. Other projects and modifications were proposed and implemented up until 1713, when the treaty of Utrecht saw Bayonne lose its strategic importance.
During the 18th century, the fortifications were subject to multiple construction phases, boosted by the port facilities and a concern over embellishment. The Restoration and the July Monarchy modified the fortifications to make them optimally effective for artillery manoeuvres, something which had been found sorely lacking during the allied siege of 1814.