Citadel of Montpellier

In 1621, King Louis XIII arrived with soldiers to quell a Huguenot rebellion; he took over the city after an eight-month siege.

The citadel was built between 1624 and 1627 between the fortifications of the Écusson, or old town, and the coastal plain of the River Lez.

It was separated from the city proper by a wide esplanade, looking over the floodplain of the Lez.

Under the Ancien Régime, the citadel held royal troops as well as detachments of conscripted forces from Bas-Languedoc.

In 1947 city authorities decided to move the high school into the citadel, which had since become the Joffre Barracks.