Castle Map

Fortress

Citadel of Saint-Martin-de-Ré

France

Heritage status
part of UNESCO World Heritage Site · classified historical monument
Location
Saint-Martin-de-Ré
Coordinates
46.20485°, -1.35884°
Citadel of Saint-Martin-de-Ré in France
Photo: Pep.per · CC BY-SA 1.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Description

The citadel of Saint-Martin-de-Ré is a military work built from 1690 in order to protect the Île de Ré. It is one of the principal historic monuments of the town of Saint-Martin-de-Ré, in the department of Charente-Maritime, in the south-west of France.

In 1873, the citadel, transformed into a depot for gathering prisoners destined to be sent to the penal colonies, was for 65 years, from 1873 to 1938, the sole assembly point for those sentenced to forced labour, before their departure by ship (La Loire or the Martinière, to the penal colony of French Guiana or that of New Caledonia).

The citadel and the fortifications of Saint-Martin-de-Ré were listed as historic monuments by decree of 20 March 1984.

Machine-translated from “Citadelle de Saint-Martin-de-Ré” on the French Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

In the rankings

Citadel of Saint-Martin-de-Ré ranks #6,543 of 9,902 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #585 of the 954 mapped in France. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,148 times in the last 60 days, more than 59% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how France compares in the castle statistics.

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