Stade du Fort Carré
Stade du Fort Carré is a multi-use stadium in Antibes, France, home ground of the FC Antibes, named after the neighboring Fort Carré. It is currently used mostly for football matches and the local athletics club.
History
The stadium is a ...
for the sports stadium.''
Fort Carré, often called the Fort Carré d'Antibes, is a 16th-century star-shaped fort of four arrow-head shaped
bastion
A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...
s that stands on a 26-meter high promontory in
Antibes
Antibes (, , ; ) is a seaside city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in Southeastern France. It is located on the French Riviera between Cannes and Nice; its cape, the Cap d'Antibes, along with Cap Ferrat in Saint-Jean-Ca ...
,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
.
Henry II
Henry II may refer to:
Kings
* Saint Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (972–1024), crowned King of Germany in 1002, of Italy in 1004 and Emperor in 1014
*Henry II of England (1133–89), reigned from 1154
*Henry II of Jerusalem and Cyprus (1271–1 ...
ordered construction of the fort in the 16th century at a time when Antibes was situated on a tense border with the
Duchy of Savoy
The Duchy of Savoy (; ) was a territorial entity of the Savoyard state that existed from 1416 until 1847 and was a possession of the House of Savoy.
It was created when Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, raised the County of Savoy into a duchy f ...
. During the 17th century, the
Marquis de Vauban
A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wid ...
redeveloped it. The Fort was decommissioned in the early 20th century.
History
Context
In the 16th century, Provence and the city of Antibes belonged to the Kingdom of France while the neighboring County of
Nice
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million The tensions between the Kingdom of France and the Duchy of Savoy stemmed from the alliance of the latter with the
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...
Spain. During the
Italian wars
The Italian Wars were a series of conflicts fought between 1494 and 1559, mostly in the Italian Peninsula, but later expanding into Flanders, the Rhineland and Mediterranean Sea. The primary belligerents were the House of Valois, Valois kings o ...
, the Spaniards sacked Antibes in 1524 and 1536, underscoring the weakness of the region’s defenses.
The south-east of Provence was at the time, therefore, a tense border zone that the kings of France sought to fortify from the reign of François I onwards. With these tensions in mind, Henry II decided to build the fort at its strategic location: the building operated as a sentinel, (placed on a promontory 26 meters above sea level) providing a vantage point from which to monitor the border with the Duchy of Savoy.
The exact dates of construction are not known. However, the first official mention of the fort is found in 1552 in the archives of the city of Antibes, which ordered that compensation be paid to a man whose house was accidentally damaged by a cannonball fired from the fort.
Construction
No documentation has survived on the construction of the fort. However, according to local tradition, Jean de Renaud de Saint Rémy (commissioner of the artillerie) and Francois de Mandon (military engineer in Provence) were in charge. The chapel of Saint-Laurent, which was on the hill, was destroyed in order to make way for the military building (not an anodyne demolition at the time) and the name of the chapel was retained for the central tower of the Fort Carré, which still bears the name of "Tour Saint-Laurent".Henry III had four bastions added in 1565, whereupon it became the Fort Carré (the square fort). The initial construction lasted about 25 years. In 1585, the fort's design was modified to accommodate 16 cannon.
Vauban visited Antibes in the 1680s and had little esteem for the military value of the fort that existed at that time. Nevertheless, he established a list of projects to be carried out for the defense of Antibes, its port, and the Fort Carré (where he recommended, for example, restoring old window openings, improving water collection and quality, and building sentry boxes on the bastions). However, few of these projects were actually carried out, although he did make several improvements. In particular he repaired the rooms, floor treatment and chimneys in order to improve the living conditions of the troops. He also created external defences: reinforcement of the angles of the bastions with granite; addition of traverses to protect against ricochet fire; and replacement of the tops of the stone parapets — which were liable to scatter deadly splinters when hit by shot — with brick ones. Vauban also enlarged the embrasures and added outer walls to the fortification. He entrusted the engineer, Antoine de Niquet, with the task of supervising this work.
The silhouette of the building was not modified by Vauban. Vauban visited the fort again in 1701 and made plans to turn Antibes into a major military port. However, the King did not authorize this plan as he considered it too costly. Thus although Vauban had some involvement in developing it, the current form of Fort Carré is, for the most part, the one it had in the 16th century.
In addition to improving the defences of Fort Carré, Vauban fortified Antibes itself, adding a land front of four arrow-headed bastions around the town, as well as seaward fortifications, including a bastion on the breakwater closing the harbor.
The entrance to the fort is through a triangular work that protrudes from the walls, and which is pierced by a heavy wooden door. From here, a narrow bridge leads into the fort itself via the flank of one of the bastions. Inside, there are barracks for officers and men. The ramparts walkways are 43 meters above sea level.
Military events
Though the use of Fort Carré as a defensive installation spans more than three centuries, it was only attacked twice:
* In 1591, during the wars of religion, Duke Charles-Emmanuel I of Savoy made a breakthrough in Provence and took the stronghold of Antibes without a fight. The French army launched by Henri IV to reconquer Provence laid siege to Antibes and its fort in 1592. The Duke of Épernon who led the siege retook the town and the fort. This is the only known military capture of Fort Carré;
* In 1746 - 1747, during the
War of the Austrian Succession
The War of the Austrian Succession was a European conflict fought between 1740 and 1748, primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italian Peninsula, Italy, the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Related conflicts include King Ge ...
, the Fort Carré and Antibes were bombarded by Austro-Sardinian artillery and the English fleet, but the fort withstood the bombardment.
During the French Revolution,
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
was briefly imprisoned there. In July 1794, after the violent overthrow of
Robespierre
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; ; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman, widely recognised as one of the most influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. Robespierre fer ...
, General Bonaparte was detained as a
Jacobin
The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential political cl ...
sympathizer and held in Fort Carré for ten days. His friend and political ally, Antoine Christophe Saliceti, secured his release.
In 1815, after Napoleon was definitively defeated at the
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Imperial Army (1804–1815), Frenc ...
, the Fort Carré was occupied without a fight by Austro-Sardinian forces. The reason for this peaceful surrender of the Fort are not known. In any case, the Austro-Sardinians used their position in the Fort to bomb Antibes in order to get the Antibois to open the city gates. Antibes refused, despite significant damage to the city, and remained loyal to
Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...
. This experience shows that the Fort and the city of Antibes have to be defended as a unit — otherwise, the Fort could be used to attack the city.
Decommissioning and monument protection
The 19th century marked a turning point with the annexation of Nice to France in 1860 and as advances in military technology rendered the Fort Carré obsolete. The stronghold of Antibes and Fort Carré were decommissioned at the beginning of the 20th century, and part of the city ramparts were demolished. Soldiers were stationed there briefly during the First World War. Its last use in a military context dates to the Second World War: Fort Carré served, during the occupation, as a gathering center for foreigners for all the Alpes-Maritimes.
The fort was listed as a historical monument in 1906.
In popular culture
Fort Carré appears as the villain's fortress in the
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
film, ''
Never Say Never Again
''Never Say Never Again'' is a 1983 spy film directed by Irvin Kershner. The film is based on the 1961 James Bond novel ''Thunderball (novel), Thunderball'' by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Wh ...
'' (1983).
Gallery
File:Fort carré and port of Antibes.jpg, Harbor view
File:ANTIBOL 2.jpg, Metropolitan view
File:Pointe Est du Fort carré, Antibes.jpg, Courtyard, east side
File:Pointe Sud du Fort Carré, Antibes.jpg, Southern bastion