Fort of Louisbourg, Last French Bastion in Canada

The French Colony

Louisbourg, the last real stronghold of France in Canada during the war of the colonies (without it Quebec never stood a chance). Together we are gonna to explore its history and the structure of the place.

Entrance and Exhibit

The layout of this site is peculiar because the actual entrance of the museum is not where the fort is itself. At the entrance, there is a good overview of the history of the fort through time. At first, the fort used to be a French settlement. Knowing the strength of their enemy, the English troops, they turned most of their firepower toward the sea (around 145 cannons).Despite all of this power, the defences proved themselves to be ineffective. Indeed it was attacked and taken twice by the English during the colonial war. For those wondering how this happened, well let me tell you: seeing that all assaults from the sea were impossible due to a large number of canons defending the coast, the English decided to attack from the land, which was nearly undefended.After those events, at the end of the war of the colonies, the fort was destroyed by the English as it served no purpose. The city turned into a trade port and quickly became a major one in America.

To the Bastions

In order to go to the site, you'll need to take a bus (the ride is included with the entrance ticket). Upon reaching the fort, the first part you will see is a reconstruction of a peasant house.

Fortifications

The Bastions had two sets of Fortifications. The first, and smallest one is directly after the entrance (in fact it is the entrance). Inside the fortification post, there are two houses. Those are probably ammunitions magazine but we can't be sure because they were closed (what a shame). From the walls, you can see various canons and shooting post for riflemen. The second Fortification is much further away, and also bigger. It follows a similar design from the first one but it has bigger walls and more artillery.Also, the building inside of it is much bigger; it has a house and an exhibit on the excavations and renovations. The two sets of Fortifications are connected by a defensive wall.

The village

The Forts also had the equivalent of small villages inside of its walls. This allowed the fort to be self-sustainable during a siege. I am not going to enter in the details for it because it basically includes houses, bakeries, stables and everything that a village needs to work properly. It is still amazing to see how buildings used to look like at the time of the colonization. It is also a nice place for a good walk! This exhibit is very interesting because it is an occasion to learn more about the end of the war of the colonies. Also, it is providing a good view of how the excavations were organized, and their reconstructions.