Click on image right to see a view of the town taken from Fort Liberia - seen here in the middle distance, up on Mt. Belloc, behind Villefranche's Dauphin Bastion.
Marshal Vauban WebsiteMaintained by : Chris Jones of Altofts, Wakefield, U.K. © September 1997
Villefranche-de-Conflent - Rousillon:
This page last updated : 10 January 1998
Villefranche-de-Conflent in the Pyrenees is
among the most interesting of all the sites fortified by
Vauban. In many respects fortifying the place was a unique project.
Click on image right to see a view of the town taken from Fort Liberia - seen here in the middle distance, up on Mt. Belloc, behind Villefranche's Dauphin Bastion.
The town stands at the confluence of the rivers Cady &
Têt and nestles at the foot of steep-sided mountains. Immediately
to the south of the town the slopes have a generous covering of
trees, to the north the face of Mt Belloc is rock-strewn and covered in scrub.
The town was therefore completely surrounded with terrain that offered excellent vantage points for rebel Miquelet snipers to pick-off the defenders and townspeople below.
Accordingly, when Vauban was charged with devising a scheme to upgrade Villefranche's medieval defences he found the town's unusual situation posed some difficult questions. Exhibiting his characteristic genius for tailoring fortress design to the needs of each site - rather, like most of his contemporaries, being a slave to convention - he hit upon some novel solutions.
First Vauban strengthened & heightened the existing walls.
The medieval parapet became a gallery within the body of the
walls. This was given loopholes for the defenders muskets. The gallery being completely enclosed within the body of the walls, the defending troops could deploy musketry
fire with only the remotest likelihood of being hit by enemy snipers.
Image right; Corneilla bastion viewed from within the "fausse braye". This shows the internal gallery within the walls and the roofed top to the ramparts.
To the top of the walls, above the wide and expansive new parapet known as
the watch path, he added an immensely strong sloping roof, composed
primarily of sturdy timbers. So once again, apart from artillery
shot, the defenders atop the wall had little to fear from enemy fire.
It is also worth noting that at various places within and atop the walls
there are loopholes facing >B>into the town. This would allow the
defending troops to counter any breakthrough by an enemy, or indeed to
quell unrest within the townspeople!
After razing some of the medieval towers, Vauban added five bastions plus the St. Pierre bridgehead [see left].
The Mountain bastion - from the topography of the site the one least likely to face enemy artillery fire - houses Villefranche's
powder magazine. It is shown on the map to the left here. As one would expect the magazine was an entirely free-standing construction.
The Queen's Bastion is particularly interesting.
Although not roofed over like the others,
it's parapet wall rises so extraordinarily high above the level of the cannon embrasures as to
effectively provide the bastion's occupants with overhead protection [see below].
In front of the main walls, connecting the capitols of three pairs of bastions [i.e. Kings & St Pierre, St Pierre & Dauphin, and Corneilla & Mountain], Vauban built additional walls. These are of large stone construction, about 8 feet high, and loopholed for infantry defence. The openings in the wall between the Corneilla and Mountain bastions are so acutely angled as to permit the defenders to fire out along the face of the wall, rather than perpendicular to it.
Vauban also added outworks in front of both the Porte de France
& Porte d'Espagne. These however no longer exist. The two gateways named
were also refurbished during Louis XVI's reign as monumental
gateways. However, the machinery for raising the drawbridge at
the Porte d'Espagne is well preserved and can be seen in the picture
on the left here [which also shows off the pleasant pink Conflent marble used in the construction of parts of the walls].
There was another small scale outwork, designed by Vauban, which does still exist. Within the mountain to the South of the town, opposite the aptly named Mountain bastion, are to be found numerous natural limestone caverns. A broad stairway of 124 steps was cut into the mountain to allow access to a significant cavern system - the Cova Bastera - which is about 75 - 100 foot above the valley floor. Working along these caverns it proved possible to reach a small opening overlooking the southern approaches to the Porte de France. Vauban planned to have this converted into a casemate for two artillery pieces that could command the road below them. This work was carried out after Vauban's death, along with the construction of a powder magazine which he had sketched plans for [replaced by a later magazine built in 1838]. Finally, to ensure the gunners were secure from the rear, a series of intricate loopholed doorways were constructed at strategic points along the cavern. Added impetus for this work was provided by the Conspiracy of Villefranche which occurred between Vauban's first and second visits. The rebels used the caverns as a launch pad for their attack on the town - see the "Villefranche-de-Conflent Timeline" further down this page.
Left: The Dauphin bastion, and looking upstream [westwards] along the river Tet towards the St. Pierre bridgehead. The foot of Mt. Belloc is seen to the right.
Right: The Porte de Paris. The line of the old, medieval, parapet can be made out - level with the top of the gate. You can also see some of the firing slits cut into the gallery formed around the old parapet.
1090 Villefranche-de-Conflent is founded by Guillaume Raymond, Count
of Cerdagne.
1117 Authority over Villefranche passes to the Counts of Barcelona.
1276 Creation of the Kingdom of Majorca [destined to be short-lived]. It's
capital is Perpignan & it's rule extends over Villefranche.
1344 End of the Kingdom of Majorca. Villefranche passes to the Kingdom of
Aragon.
1463 Villefranche becomes French for the first time, under Louis XI.
1493 Guardianship of Villefranche passes to the Kingdom of Castille.
1613 Wars of Religion - Villefranche & Perpignan on opposing sides.
1654 Villefranche suffers a six-day siege after which it is captured and
then sacked by the French.
1659 Under the Treaty of the Pyrénées the province of Catalunia is
partitioned. France takes possession of the portion North of the
Pyrénées - including Villefranche - and Spain that to the South.
1661 The French & Spanish hold a conference at Céret to properly
delineate their mutual border on the Pyrénées.
1662 Secret talks between Louis XIV and the Spanish Government, the
purpose being to negotiate an exchange of territory - Spain to
acquire Roussillon, & France the Spanish Netherlands [Belgium].
Nothing comes of the talks.
1663 Renewed hostilities with Spain.
1667 French under Douvrier repulse Spanish raid at Bellegarde.
1669 Vauban makes his first tour of Roussillon; he visits Perpignan,
Collioure, Bellegarde & Villefranche - the last named having recently
been designated a permanent garrison for French troops [projected at
500 in peacetime, 1,500 to 2,000 in times of trouble]. Vauban sets
about improving the medieval defences of Villefranche, also drawing
up plans to build a detached fort a short distance to the north of
Villefranche, up on Mount Belloc, to occupy the heights that dominate
the town.
1674 As part of a struggle lasting until 1719, some of the inhabitants
of Villefranche and the surrounding region rebel against the French
Crown. They seek to be re-united with their Spanish brethren. In
the "Conspiracy of Villefranche", timed to coincide with a Spanish
raid on Bellegarde, Inés de Llar, a young woman of one of the
leading pro-Spanish families seeks to subvert the town's garrison
by using her feminine wiles on the commander De Parlan de Saignes.
While de Saignes is unmoved by her advances the town nevertheless
falls to a rebel assault and the garrison massacred. However,
before the rebels can consolidate their gains the crown regains
control of the town. Inés de Llar escapes to Spain but
many of her co-conspirators are captured, tried and executed.
The unfortunates' tortured remains are quartered & exposed on
the town walls in iron cages as an example to other would-be rebels.
1679 Vauban's second tour of Roussillon, this time as Commissaire général
des Fortifications.
1680 Vauban makes a third voyage to Roussillon, accompanied by the Chief
Minister Louvois. They visit all the important sites of the region
including Villefranche.
1681 Villefranche seemed to some to become secondary to the defence of
France with the inauguration of the fortress of Mont Louis. However,
as if evidence were needed of Villefranche's continued importance,
construction of Vauban's detached fort up on Mt Belloc is commenced.
1687 Vauban makes his last tour of Roussillon.
1707 Vauban dies in Paris.
1793 With the defences in a poor state and with an weak garrison,
Villefranche falls after offering only very limited resistance to an
invading Spanish force. Later the same year the town is retaken by
the French under the command of the Sans Culotte General Dagobert
1850 Three year's work begins to link the town's defences with Fort Liberia
up on Mt Belloc. Some 70% of the distance between the two is covered
by subterranean works, including the "stairway of a thousand
steps" [734 actually]. An "Intermediary Battery"
is also constructed on the mountain, halfway between town & fort.
1890 Villefranche ceases to be a garrison town of the French Army
1918 The last detachment of the French Army vacates Fort Liberia.
