Neuf-Brisach: Vauban's Octagon
Grand Est, France
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225
XP
+100 France
= 325 total
1 day
Neuf-Brisach: Vauban's Octagon
225 + 100 XP
After France lost Breisach across the Rhine, Neuf-Brisach was created from nothing in the Alsace plain between 1698 and 1702; Louis XIV himself chose the octagonal plan from the three Vauban proposed. It is the only and finest example of Vauban's third system of fortification, and it has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 7 July 2008, with the other major Vauban sites.
Required Activities
1
of 5
Stand at the centre of the place d'Armes and count the streets running out of it: the whole town is a grid laid inside an octagon of walls begun with the first stone on 18 October 1698 and finished in 1702, with the church came later — Saint-Louis was begun on 11 October 1731 and finished in 1736, and the town hall in 1758. Find the fontaine royale on the square before you leave it
2
of 5
Go through the Porte de Belfort and find what is built into it: the slot for the portcullis, the guardroom and the experimental casemates, and the place where the drawbridge replaced a fixed one. It houses the Vauban museum now; then check the other three gates and prove to yourself that each one points at the town it is named for, Colmar, Strasbourg and Basel
3
of 5
Walk the full circuit of the defences and take them in the order an attacker would have met them: the outer demi-lune with its réduit inside it, then the contre-garde shielding the bastioned tower behind it, then the ditch, then the inner wall — there are eight bastioned towers and eight contre-gardes, and from the air the octagon reads as a sixteen-pointed star
4
of 5
Put your hand on the dressed stone of a gate and then on the brick and rubble beside it: the pink sandstone came from the Vosges down a canal dug for the purpose, and the plainer work is largely the restoration of a town severely damaged by American bombing in 1945 — find a stretch where the two meet
5
of 5
Walk out through one gate and straight back in through the next, and see how abruptly the town stops: boxed inside its walls, Neuf-Brisach has never been able to extend, and the garrison it was built for was disbanded in 1992. Then look east and place the Rhine bridge, 3.5 km away, which is the border this last town Vauban built from nothing was put here to watch
Stand at the centre of the place d'Armes and count the streets running out of it: the whole town is a grid laid inside an octagon of walls begun with the first stone on 18 October 1698 and finished in 1702, with the church came later — Saint-Louis was begun on 11 October 1731 and finished in 1736, and the town hall in 1758. Find the fontaine royale on the square before you leave it
Go through the Porte de Belfort and find what is built into it: the slot for the portcullis, the guardroom and the experimental casemates, and the place where the drawbridge replaced a fixed one. It houses the Vauban museum now; then check the other three gates and prove to yourself that each one points at the town it is named for, Colmar, Strasbourg and Basel
Walk the full circuit of the defences and take them in the order an attacker would have met them: the outer demi-lune with its réduit inside it, then the contre-garde shielding the bastioned tower behind it, then the ditch, then the inner wall — there are eight bastioned towers and eight contre-gardes, and from the air the octagon reads as a sixteen-pointed star
Put your hand on the dressed stone of a gate and then on the brick and rubble beside it: the pink sandstone came from the Vosges down a canal dug for the purpose, and the plainer work is largely the restoration of a town severely damaged by American bombing in 1945 — find a stretch where the two meet
Walk out through one gate and straight back in through the next, and see how abruptly the town stops: boxed inside its walls, Neuf-Brisach has never been able to extend, and the garrison it was built for was disbanded in 1992. Then look east and place the Rhine bridge, 3.5 km away, which is the border this last town Vauban built from nothing was put here to watch
Before you go
The tourist office of the pays Rhin-Brisach runs guided tours all year, with costumed guides playing Vauban, Louvois and Tarade, and they get you into parts of the works you would otherwise walk past. The rampart circuit is grass and unsurfaced in places. Park outside the walls: the streets inside the octagon are narrow and the Christmas market on the second weekend of December and the biennial Napoleonic bivouac close the place d'Armes entirely.
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About Grand Est
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
225 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
325 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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