BELLEGARDE'S FORTRESS

BACKGROUND

The present-day Bellegarde fortress, much like many other modern fortresses located close to borders, is the result of great political and military disruptions that created the European states that we know nowadays. Nevertheless, the fortress of Bellegarde is especially peculiar because it is located on top of the administrative border line, which makes it different to other European fortresses of the same style.

The Treaty of the Pyrenees, which ended with the Thirty Years’ War, stipulated in 1660 that the border between the French and the Spanish monarchy would move nearly 100 kilometres (60 miles) to the South, where it is today. In this way, the fortress of Bellegarde, which had been a medieval castle belonging to the counts of the Roussillon, became a guard of one of the most important border passes between two big states.

One of the first of several improvements and updates took place in 1670 by Jacques Borelly de Saint Hilaire, engineer of King Louis XIV of France, but it wasn’t until 1679 that the construction of the actual fortress started, following the project of the marshal Vauban. Bellegarde needed to be able to accommodate a garrison of 1200 soldiers, 150 horses and powerful artillery.

The works, given to the building contractors of the Roussillon area, were supervised by Sylvestre Dubruelh, governor of the city of Perpignan. When Vauban came to see the fortress in 1686 to supervise the works, he said that “it will be one of the most beautiful, best located, best built and most important fortresses”.

THE FORTRESS OF BELLEGARDE

Bellegarde occupies a surface of 140’000m² of which only 8000m² are built-up. It is structured around a covered way with a parapet and a glacis that surrounds the fortress; there is a ditch dug in the rock and a first rampart with five bastions called Perthus, Saint Andrew, Panissars, Spain and Precipice. Between the bastions of Perthus and Saint Andrew you can find the main access, the great Door of France with a drawbridge crossing with a steep drop to an artificial moat located in the ditch. Between the bastions of Spain and Precipice there is the Door of Spain with another drawbridge. In front of the Door of France there is a ravelin accessible through a third drawbridge. Another two ravelins defend the curtains located between the bastions of Saint Andrew and Spain.

The second rampart is erected on top of the bastions’ and curtains’ terrepleins. Lacking in ditch, it is formed by five small bastions with its corresponding curtains, placed on top of the first rampart. One of them is a rounded tower or rounded bastion, which given its originality is an outstanding and characteristic element of the fortress.

This second area establishes the perimeter of the space occupied by the different buildings used by the garrison. The chapel presiding over the North, about which there is the governor’s pavilion and then on both sides the troops’ barracks and the officer’s pavilions. These buildings are located all around the parade. All these constructions have bomb-proof basements where there was the bakery, the stables, the troops’ accommodation during war times and more.

Located on the top of a granite hill, the fortress couldn’t be supplied by any spring. In order to solve this important problem, five big water tanks were designed to collect rain water. In 1683 Vauban made an estimate: once the water tanks are full, there would be water for 1200 men for four and a half months if every man drinks three litres of water every day, even if it doesn’t rain during that period. However, these water tanks were considered insufficient and so excavation works for a well were undertook in the internal well in the bastion of Saint Andrew. This well was a huge work, completely dug into the rock; measuring 63 meters deep by 5 metres of diameter. The top part is covered by masonry. The average height of the water is between 27 and 30 metres, which represents a volume of approximately 800’000 litres.

THE FORT AND THE BASTIONS

In 1674, the Spanish army took Bellegarde back. One of the key reasons why they forced surrender was because the Spanish besiegers managed to place four canons only a few hundred metres south of the fortress, where there was a weak wooden palisade defence. This artillery weakened the French army severely. As soon as the French took the fortress back the following year they decided to build a masonry fort on top of this strategic position. It is a fortification with a shape similar to a hornwork but covered at the rear composed of two demi-bastions with their curtains on the southern side facing Spain. The northern side is defended by a saw tooth effect and a bastion. A ditch following the western curtain was dug in addition to one along the southern front. In that way, the rest of the fortress was inaccessible given the nature of the mountain. A covered way surrounds this work and communicates with the fortress.

The entrance to the hornwork or fort is protected by a ditch with a drawbridge, which no-longer remains. Besides pavilions for a hundred soldiers, stables and a powder magazine located on the northern front, there is a small parade under which there is a water tank with a beautiful covered well.

To finish off the parade’s defences and observation the nearby peaks, strong bastions were built around the fortress at different heights: the Bastion of the Precipice (1668), the Bastion of Panissars (1678) and the Bastion of Le Perthus (1693).

MILITARY EVENTS

In 1674 during the Franco-Dutch War, the Spanish army occupied Bellegarde under the command of the count of San Germán. The fortress was retaken by the marshal of Schomberg and from this point onwards the fortress began its role as a border guard, troops’ accommodation and ammunition magazine throughout the campaigns of Louis XIV in Catalonia: the Nine Year’s War (1689 - 1697) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701 - 1715). After the death of the French king and after the Bourbon monarchy was consolidated in Spain with his grandson King Philip V of Spain, a long period of peace started.

The fortress would know war again nearly a century later, during the French Revolution. In 1793 the Spanish general Ricardos invaded the Roussillon and sieged Bellegarde. Lacking supplies and being constantly bombarded for months, the garrison was forced to surrender.

The following year the general Dugommier organised a siege of Bellegarde after having forced the Spanish army to withdraw back to Catalonia, which at the time was commanded by the Duke of the Union. He forbade any bombardment because he wanted to keep the fortress in good state of preservation for the French republic. Four and a half months later, the Spanish army signed the surrender.

After this event, Bellegarde would never see war again. It would be used for accommodation for the Napoleonic soldiers in the Catalonia campaigns (1808 - 1813). The French army would keep a regiment in Bellegarde until the end of the First World War; afterwards, in 1939, the fortress would be used as a hospital during the withdrawal of the Spanish republicans escaping from the Spanish Civil War before then accommodating German soldiers between 1943 - 1945.

ADMINISTRATIVE SITUATION

In 1965 Bellegarde was dissociated from the public use and service by the French army. In 1967 it was declared a historic monument and was put up for public auction. Finally, in 1972 the village of Le Perthus achieved its acquisition to open it for public visits and cultural events.