Citadelle de Lille

Called the queen of citadels, the Lille citadel was Vauban's first great personal achievement. Begun in 1670, it takes the form of a regular pentagon reinforced by powerful bastions inside which the buildings are arranged radially, leaving a large central courtyard. Dear to Vauban's heart, this jewel of fortification is visited by contacting the Tourist Office. You will particularly admire the Porte Royale and the Arsenal. Leaving the citadel, going straight ahead, due east, along the boulevards following the traces of the old fortifications destroyed under the Second Empire, do not miss admiring at the Palais des Beaux-Arts the relief plans of seventeenth-century towns, including that of Lille, and, further on, what remains of Fort Saint-Sauveur, at the square du Réduit, not far from the Porte de Paris built by the Lille native Simon Vollant, a collaborator of Vauban, to the glory of Louis XIV. Very near, the remains of the Noble Tour, raised under the duke of Burgundy Philip the Bold. Around Lille, the forts of Bondues to the north and Seclin to the south show good examples of the so-called Séré de Rivières fortifications.

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