Tour Vauban

It has three levels and is flanked by walls, a guardhouse and a gun battery which can hold 11 cannons as well as a cannonball foundry added in the French Revolution period.

Drafted in 1683, the tower was designed in 1689 by Vauban and construction was supervised by the military engineer Jean-Pierre Traverse from 1693 to completion in 1696.

In the French victory in the Battle of Camaret on 18 June 1694, the battery and its two guard houses were only armed with nine 24-pounder cannon and three mortars firing 30 cm balls.

On 18 June 1694 Vauban himself was in command of the garrison when they repelled an Anglo-Dutch attack.

Since 7 July 2008 the tour Vauban and 11 other sites have been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to their outstanding engineering and testimony to Vauban's influence on military strategy and architecture from the 17th through the 19th centuries.