The Bastille is a fortress culminating at 476 m (ft) above sea level,According to a GPS survey by a surveyor at the request of the Téléphérique management : Place Tournadre from m to m. Arrival platform of the cable car station and geologists terrace m. Place Haxo m. Vauban panoramic viewpoint m. The signpost installed by the city in Place Tournadre indicating an elevation of 498m is therefore incorrect. This error may have arisen because the IGN 1:25000 map of the area (ref 3335OT) shows a triangulation point at 498m, but situated on the highest point of the fort (inaccessible to the public). located at the south end of the Chartreuse mountain range and overlooking the city of Grenoble, France. The Bastille, which also gives its name to the hill, is the main tourist site of the Grenoble area, with 600,000 visitors per year.According to the web site of the Téléphérique.
Geography The fortress lies on the final promontory of Mount Rachais, a narrow mountain that is the most southerly of the Chartreuse range.
The plateau of the fortress' main fortifications is situated 264 metres above a singularly flat valley floor which is glacial in origin. The melting of the Isère glacier approximately years agoAccording to the geological information boards to be found on the paths ascending to the Bastille. led to the formation of a vast lake stretching from Voiron to Albertville and which remained for approximately years. The filling-in of this lake by alluvial deposits created the perfectly flat valley floors that are in evidence today.
The location was chosen for a fort because it facilitated the surveillance and control of the city of Grenoble, from the 19th century onward, as well as the valleys of the Isère and the Drac, all the while being difficult to attack and overthrow because of the cliffs and steep ground by which it is surrounded.
History Francis I in 1538 and Charles IX in 1566 both asked that this hill be fortified, but these requests were not acted upon.
The Lesdiguières Era
In December 1590, Lesdiguières,He did not become a duke until 1611. head of the Huguenots in the Dauphiné, took control of the city of Grenoble from the Roman Catholic side during the eighth and last Wars of Religion. With an army of men gathered at Moirans, he marched towards Grenoble, passing through Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux and then over the spur of Mount Rachais called the Rabot, avoiding a fortified stronghold there.This fortified house dating from the 15th century is thought to be the earliest fortification built on the hill. A single cannon was positioned on the slopes of Mount Rachais, because this rocky spur was thought to be enough of a natural barrier to deter the advance of hostile forces. But in spite of a permanent state of alert and 24 watch points in the city, Grenoble fell to Lesdiguières after more than three weeks under siege.
In 1591, having become governor of Grenoble, Lesdiguières immediately ordered the construction of two new defensive elements for the city. First, a small fortified citadel around the Tour de l'Isle (a square tower built on the banks of the Isère, which today stands next to the Museum of Grenoble) so as to have a safe place to withdraw to in case the city was attacked. Second, a fortress on the summit of the hill so that no enemy could as he did approach the city from the Chartreuse without being challenged. This fortress, or bastille, which would give its name to the hill, was completed the following year in 1592. Comprising a tower and a series of small bastions, and with a building to lodge the troops, it was encircled by a wall approximately 1.3 metres thick around an area 68 metres long and 50 metres wide.According to Maurice Mercier in Histoire des fortifications de Grenoble, p.65, the remains of this first fortress must lie underneath the existing glacis.
At the same time as these works were taking place, the Roman city wall, 13 centuries old and ill-adapted to withstand the artillery of the time, was removed. New defensive walls were built, equipped with six bastions and two half-bastions capable of resisting artillery assault. The works encompassed the suburbs that had grown up around the original Roman city walls, thereby increasing the surface area of the city by ,The city therefore now had a surface area of 36 hectares. and were finished by December 1606.According to the book by Maurice Mercier, p.71.
In the first few years Lesdiguières used the Piedmont architect Ercole Negro, then later, from 1611, the royal engineer Jean de Beins. In 1611, after a pause in the works, construction began on the fortifications descending from either side of the Bastille towards two new monumental gates situated at points on the banks of the Isère approximately 1 km apart.
The Porte Saint Laurent upstream on the Savoy side of Grenoble was finished in 1615, and the Porte de France downstream was finished in 1620. A road was for the first time cut in the rocks along the banks of the Isère, which allowed to get from one gate to the other without crossing over the rocky spur by the Montée de Chalemont. These two monumental gates still exist today, but as for the fortifications there remain only the vestiges of three bartizansTwo were reused in the fortifications of the 19th century on the hill and the other can be seen near the Musée de Grenoble. and a staircase in the form of a tower in the Jardin des Dauphins. These works on the two branches of fortifications were completed in July 1619.
The Vauban Era
A century after the construction of the Bastille, the military architect Vauban, during his first inspection of the fortifications of the Alps in September 1692, alerted the king, Louis XIV, to the weaknesses of the defences of Grenoble. In his report, he described them as "weak, unfinished, poorly maintained, especially those of the Bastille", which he said were "badly cut, or rather a closed bauble, but without rhyme or reason, occupied by a vintner who is the governor, or at least who has the keys, with twelve cows, eight goats, a mare and a donkey for the whole garrison!".Citation of Vauban according to the book by Robert Bornecque, La Bastille et les fortifications de Grenoble
However, his program of improvements to the fortifications of the Bastille would be ignored, as was his project for the enlargement of the city walls to the south that he proposed during a second visit in July 1700. Only a few terraces and two powder magazines were built. Only one powder magazine remains today, behind the Hôtel de Police. It is the only evidence of the passage of Vauban in Grenoble.
During the 18th century, the absence of any threat from the frontier of the Alps led to the lack of interest in any more military projects for Grenoble and the fortifications were no longer maintained.
In addition, due to the extensive flooding of the Isere in September 1733, and December 1741, what monopolized the minds of the authorities were what to implement to overcome these disasters' possible occurrence in the future. Many projects developed by engineers and surveyors between 1741, and 1787, were plans to divert waters of the river south of the city. But due to lack of resources, these projects remained for the approval by the board of Bridges and Roads; they were permanently abandoned in 1790.Denis Coeur, La plaine de Grenoble face aux inondations, Éditions Quæ, Paris, 2008
The Haxo Era
After the rout of Napoleon in Europe, the treaty of Fontainebleau in 1814, and that of Paris the following year put Grenoble back on the frontier opposite the Kingdom of Sardinia. Louis XVIII therefore decided in 1815 to reinforce his military presence on the borders. The following year, he charged General Haxo with the task of improving the fortifications of Grenoble that had become outdated and dilapidated.
After several rough drafts of the plans of the fortress, and much to-ing and fro-ing between Grenoble and the Fortifications Committee in Paris from 1822 to August 1823, the definitive plans for the fort of the Bastille that we can visit today were finally adopted by the committee in its meeting of 29 August 1823.According to Maurice Mercier in his book Histoire des fortifications de Grenoble de l'an 43 avant JC à 1900. The first works on the site of the new fortress and its new fortifications began on 16 April 1824. The chief of the battalion of Engineers on site was Commander Tournadre.The main square in the fort is now named after him; a plaque tells us all about his contribution to the construction of the fort.
On the slopes which alternated between rocky points, cliffs and scree, the use of contour maps allowed the precise calculation of position and height. The quarries of the Porte de France below supplied most of the stones which were transported up the hill by mule.
On the western side of the hill above the Porte de France,Classed as a historic monument on 18 September 1925. General Haxo followed the line of the 17th-century, walls and turned them into much larger walls flanked by casemates and bastions. At the top was the keep, or the fort, rebuilt after the demolition of the Bastille of Lesdiguières. Preceded by a moat, the fort is a rectilinear building composed of three floors of casemates in dressed stone, built between 1825, and 1830. Immediately adjacent to it, a barracks was built between 1827, and 1838This seems to be a long time but the information comes from a plaque on the wall of the restaurant which states that a plan was presented in 1827. to lodge 100 men, officers and NCOs.A detailed report on the capacities and the purposes of the various barracks on the Place de Grenoble show that in 1865 the barracks of the keep contained 3 officers and 98 NCOs. A century later this building became a restaurant. In 1836, a powder magazine was built below the barracks. In spite of the roof having caved in, it is still visible today from the Vauban Viewpoint (the restaurant terrace).
Still on the western flank, lower down, there is the more modest fort of the Rabot with its citadel,Named after a dynasty of dauphinois parliamentarians of the 15th and 16th centuries who were owners of the land. situated within the defensive walls. Built between 1840, and 1847, close to the old Rabot stronghold of the 15th century,That which Lesdiguières was careful to avoid on the approach to Grenoble. First fortification of the hill, it is still present and intact among the university buildings. some fifty metres above the city, its role was to lodge up to 900 troops and their officers together with their artillery and a powder magazine far from the likely battlefront. Access is controlled by a monumental gate with a drawbridge. Since 1970, this fort has belonged to Grenoble's university and is used as student residences.
On the eastern flank, the Porte Saint LaurentClassed as a historic monument on 16 April 1931. side of the hill, General Haxo decided on a much more direct route for the walls than the line used by Lesdiguières. Rising above the Porte Saint Laurent are some five terraces of casemates. Then comes the first shorter section of wall linking the Porte Saint Laurent with two floors of mid-level casemates, and a second longer section of wall leads directly from there to the lower casemates of the Bastille. Running alongside each of these two walls is a staircase, with some 80 steps on the lower section and 300 on the upper section. Approximately every ten steps there is a landing, and from there five larger steps lead off at right angles up to the inner side of the wall where there are individual firing positions. With four firing positions between each of the landings this gives 36 positions on the lower section and 120 positions on the upper section.