Top 5 Castles around Saint-Froult

fortified village, former port of departure for the Americas, today it is located approximately 1.5km from the shore...

Overlooking the Grande Plage of Fouras-les-Bains, you cannot miss this gigantic structure: Fort Vauban. From the 11th century, the castellany of Fouras owed its growth to the taxes that the lords of Rochefort levied on boats using the Charente. In the 15th century, in place of the castle, destroyed during the War of Religion, a 30 meter high keep was built to monitor the sea from the top of its terrace. It was during the construction of the Rochefort Arsenal that the keep became the fort we know today. It then becomes a centerpiece of the defense system of the approaches to the Charente in order to prevent entry towards Rochefort.

More information can be found here: https://meinfrance.com/brouage-schoenste-doerfer-zitadelle/

The stronghold of Brouage is a former salt trading port named Jacopolis-sur-Brouage, which became a Catholic war port wanted by Cardinal Richelieu who named it Brouage in 1627 to compete with the Huguenot stronghold of La Rochelle. Brouage is also considered to be perhaps the birthplace of the geographer Samuel de Champlain who participated in the founding and colonization of New France, and who is the founder of the city of Quebec in Canada. A military port on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean until the beginning of the 18th century, the town is today inland and surrounded by marshes. Attention: inside the citadel the streets are almost exclusively paved.

Fort Fouras was actually built on the site of a Roman castle. Its purpose is to defend the mouth of the river against invasions. It was in service and actively occupied and used until 1927.

For cyclo-hikers following La Vélodyssée here there is the option of connecting for an excursion to the Ile d'Oléron

This building is improperly called "Fort Vauban" by tourist brochures, while the construction of the original citadel is much earlier than the modification carried out by Vauban. The mouth of the Charente was a strategic site at all times. In Roman times the site of Fouras was on an island and around 58 BC a Roman castrum called “Caesar’s Castle” occupied the site. In the 11th century, the châtellenie of Fouras legally returned to the Rochefort family who obtained the rights to exercise high, medium and low justice, and to tax (toll) boats using the river. In 1305, Philippe le Bel bought Fouras and attached him to the crown, then again conceded this stronghold which would change lord several times, until Jehan II de Brosse, lord of L'Aigle in 1449 (1454?), Who had built the keep from 1480 to 1490. It was the end of the Hundred Years War. During the wars of religion, the strategic position of Fouras allowed him to escape the destruction ordered by Louis XIII for all the strongholds after the capture of La Rochelle. He made it a royal fortress. During the Dutch War (1672 to 1678), Fouras protected the arsenal of Rochefort built in 1666 by defending the mouth of the Charente. From 1689 to 1693, under the supervision of Vauban, François Ferry, engineer of Louis XIV, transformed the old feudal residence into a "fort by the sea". It thickens the walls of the keep and creates, 36 m above the sea, a firing platform for 9 cannons. He reinforced the medieval rampart and gained the sea by building a false braie intended to carry the bulk of the cannons. In 1705 Ferry had barracks built on the current parking lot. It housed the garrison and served as a rampart for the keep. The fort will be equipped with 50 cannons spread over 3 levels of fire: the false braie, the courtyard and the top of the keep, and will have a garrison of 300 to 600 men. Its shape is reminiscent of a warship: the horseshoe structure at the front (bow), the high medieval courtyard (upper deck), the keep (mast) and the ramparts (bridge). Fort de Fouras did not fire a shot, even during the two British attacks on the harbor, in 1757 and 1809. It would remain in service until the arsenal was closed in 1927. The fort and the citadel were classified as a historical monument on March 13, 1987

The Château du Bois-Vert in the park of Fouras is a vast neo-classical residence built in 1870, which was originally designed as a dwelling, before being transformed into a casino in 1886. It then became one of the the city's most fashionable places and the heart of social life. The left wing was added in 1887. A performance hall was subsequently inaugurated while the park, planted with holm oaks, adjoining the castle was fitted out to serve as a setting for outdoor parties. In 1913, the castle was transformed into a hotel, before being for a time converted into a convalescent home for soldiers wounded during the First World War. Its name was then "Hospital 103". The hotel was bought by the municipality in 1946 and closed in 1975. The castle, still owned by the municipality, has now become a place of reception.