Teena in Toronto: Fortification walls, Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), QC

Monday 29 July 2013

Fortification walls, Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), QC

After breakfast, Gord and I walked along the fortification walls inside Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec).

The first protective wall was built in the 17th century under Louis de Buade, sieur de Frontenac. A plan of fortifications was developed by the French military engineer Jacques Levasseur de Néré (1662–1723) and approved by Louis XIV's commissary general of fortifications Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban in 1701. Considerable work took place on the fortifications after the fall of Louisbourg in 1745 under the direction of military engineer Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry.

The existing star-shaped fortifications were built by the United Kingdom between 1820 and 1831 under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Elias Walker Durnford of the Royal Engineers and incorporated a section of the French enceinte (enclosure) of 1745. Their purpose was to secure the strategic heights of Cap Diamant against the Americans and to serve as a refuge for the British garrison in the event of attack or rebellion. The preservation of much of the fortifications and defences of Quebec is due to the intervention of Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, Governor General of Canada 1872–1878, who also established the Citadelle as a vice-regal residence.

We started at Porte St-Jean (St. John's Gate).