Vauban's Legacy

The other day, an article in the Badische Zeitung informed readers about a Consortium for Revitalizing Freiburg's Schlossberg to make a part of Vauban's fortifications, the Fort Carré, visible again. When thinking about Schlossberg, many of my Madison friends know Toni's place, the Greiffenegg-Schlössle, which neither sounds nor looks like a fort due to its diminutive form.

The Greiffenegg-Schlössle above Freiburg
and its chestnut-shaded beer garden behind

Well, the Greiffenegg-Schlössle is like the tip of an iceberg where more than 90% of what once existed on Schlossberg is no longer there or rather invisible.

Without going back in history to the Romans, it was Bertold II, Duke of Zähringen, who, in 1091 decided to build his Castrum de Friburch on the strategically important hill above the future city of Freiburg. No pictures exist, but Hartmann von Aue ought to have written songs about the most beautiful castle in the region.

Over the centuries, buildings and fortifications on Schlossberg were frequently destroyed but just as often reconstructed.

The Burghaldenschloss at the time of the Thirty Years' War

In Merian's Topographia Germaniae, volume Alsatiae, a copperplate print of Freiburg in 1644 shows a building on Schlossberg called Burghaldenschloss. The castle was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War but rebuilt at the order of Emperor Leopold in the 1670ties as a stronghold against French aggression.

In 1670, the Leopoldsburg looked like a stronghold.

All in vain. 1677 Louis XIV's marshal François de Créqui besieged the city and eventually took it. The subsequent Nijmegen Peace Treaty required Leopold to hand Freiburg to the French crown.

Genius Vauban

Immediately, Louis XIV ordered his fortress architect Vauban to embataille the city according to modern standards as a French fort on German territory. Genius Vauban regarded incorporating the Vieux Château (Burghaldenschloss) into the new fortification not as a problem but as an opportunity. In enlarging the existing installations on Schlossberg, he transformed them into a refuge. Should Freiburg be taken by an enemy, the city's troops would initially retreat to Fort de l'Aigle - due to its form also called chamber pot - then, in case of need, move even higher up into Fort de St. Pierre, and eventually, as a last resort pull back to Fort Carré.

Vauban's fortification around Freiburg and on Schlossberg:
Fort de l'Aigle, Fort de St. Pierre, and at the far end Fort Carré.

When the French had to leave Freiburg definitely in 1745, they blew up Vauban's fortifications and leveled the buildings. Over the years, nature took over, and the last vestiges of Vauban's work disappeared. Now, the Consortium would like to make the foundations of Fort Carré visible as a historical heritage.

The Fort Carré, the last resort (©BZ)

Vauban had to construct his fortification in Freiburg into and around existing structures. However, he could build his masterpiece from scratch a few kilometers away from Freiburg: Neuf Brisach.

Vauban's masterpiece: Neuf Brisach

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