Queyras Region: Mont Dauphin
Mont Dauphin is a fortress built in 1693 by Vauban to protect the access of the high valleys of the rivers Durance and Guil. Situated on a plateau below the picturesque village of Eygliers, its impressive fortifications contain a military settlement, barracks, arsenals, officers' and civilian houses, church and all. Most buildings are well preserved - entering Mont Dauphin you feel like going back in time 400 years.
Plans to construct a fortress started in 1679, but remained unrealized. Only after a devastating raid by the Duke of Savoy did construction begin in earnest. In 1692, during the War of the League of Augsburg and despite a marriage alliance with France, Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy, joined the League formed by England, Austria, Holland and a number of German states, Spain and Portugal to defend the Palatinate from France. From July to September 1692, at the head of an army of 45.000 men, he invaded the Queyras and the Durance valley to create a diversion and split the French forces, devastating everything in its path: bridges, villages, crops. Gap, Embrun and Guillestre were plundered and destroyed. Only the arrival of smallpox made the Duke's army return in the autumn of 1692. It became quite clear that protection by the mighty Alps was insufficient and that a fortress had to be constructed.
The construction project was approved in March 4, 1693 despite a deep financial crisis in France, which was exhausted by the war and faced a severe food crisis. The location was superb and quality stones could be obtained from the nearby quarry of Eygliers up on the hill.
Living on Mont Dauphin has been described as dull, boring, even depressing: long winters, the constant wind and the lack of any village life in this fortified settlement. It is here that Vauban perfected his idea of a royal fortress with civilians supporting the garrison. Houses were built on the two main streets running parallel from north to south. Their vaulted cellars were used as a shelter, the ground floor for shops and the floors above for housing. Straight, wide streets, fountains, wash houses, the arsenal, barracks and exercise grounds. Within the fortress were 32 acres of grazing grounds for the mules, which were needed for transportation. To attract people, the land was free for anyone wishing to build and residents benefited from tax exemptions. Wandering within the fortress today one can only imagine how monotone life on Mont Dauphin must have been as compared to the bustling town of Guillestre, not to speak of the even larger and more urban towns Embrun. No surprise then that the Mont Dauphin garrison suffered from frequent desertions.
Less than 100 years later, during the French Revolution (1789), the fortress was renamed to Mont Cub aka Mont Lyon (Lion's Mountain). Dauphin was the title of the heir to the French throne (similar to the Prince of Wales in England) and getting rid of all vestiges of royalty and nobility was mandated by the revolutionary government in Paris. The name remained until 1815, when it reverted back to Mont Dauphin.
After the annexation of the western part of Savoy in 1860 by Emperor Napoleon III (in return the Duke of Savoy became King of Italy), Mont Dauphin's strategic importance declined. The garrison was gradually reduced and in 1792 its 120 guns were removed, most of them to Toulon. What followed was a succession of occupants, from Spanish and Austrian prisoners, the British Royal Regiment of Malta (captured at the occupation of Capri by General Lamarque in 1806) and soldiers of various German states. In 1812, 2000 English were imprisoned on Mont-Dauphin, accompanied by their wives and their children. During the First World War Serb refugees were housed. On June 22, 1944 the first canon shots ever were fired on Mont Dauphin when Italian aircraft attacked it, triggering a fire, which destroyed the oldest wing of the arsenal. German and Italian forces occuppied the fortress during World War II. In 1956, after the Hungarian uprising, Hungarian refugees were housed here. Finally in 1966 the fortress was demilitarized and became a historical monument. On July 7, 2008, UNESCO listed Mount Dauphin, together with eleven other Vauban fortresses on the World Heritage List.
