An inventory of works within the city walls - Besançon

The loop defences
Built on the left bank of the Doubs,
these defence works sealed off the
Doubs from the Porte de Malpas
gate to the Porte Taillée gate. From
the Porte de Malpas gate which
today no longer exists, to the Porte
Notre-Dame gate stretches the
Tarragnoz district. From the Porte
Notre-Dame gate, the starting point of
the ring of defences around the town,
on the Cordeliers flank, 1,500 metres of
ramparts dotted with bastioned towers
and bastions protected the town. From
the Cordeliers flank to the Saint-Esprit
bastion, 500 metres of quays with
casemates protected the bank of the
Doubs. This was a double defence work
at Chamars, protecting an arm of the
Doubs which has now disappeared.
From the Saint-Esprit bastion to the
Porte Rivotte gate, another entrance
to the town where the ring of defences
around the town is completed with
another 1,500 metres of ramparts
reinforced by bastions or towers border
on the river. The Rivotte district
stretches from the Porte Rivotte gate,
the town’s real entrance, to the Porte
Taillée gate. Porte Notre-Dame and
Porte Rivotte gates are linked to the
citadel by a fortified circular walkway.
From the seventeenth to the nineteenth
century, the fortifications had their
« feet in the water ». It was the building
of the Canal Monsieur (which would
become the Rhone - Rhine Canal) that
modified their aspect, with the creation
of the towpath at the foot of the
ramparts or accessed along the Doubs.
Created by Vauban from 1680
onwards, these defences succeeded the
medieval fortifications restored and
added to by Charles V in the sixteenth
century, reusing the ancient fortifications
wherever possible. Because he had
led the 1674 siege against the town,
Vauban knew all its weak points and
was therefore in a position to design the
best possible defence system.
In 1687 he invented the bastioned
towers with thick walls and two firing
levels. These towers solved the problem
of domination by the neighbouring
heights of Bregille and Chaudanne
over the town (it was at Bregille and in
particular at Chaudanne that Vauban
had installed his batteries in 1674
to take the town and the citadel).
Many engineers would work under
Vauban’s command at Besançon and
he himself came about twenty times to
supervise the town’s fortification works.
The building of the ramparts began
at the same time as the citadel, and,
scarcely had they been finished
than, the town’s ring of defences
was being constantly repaired,
improved and modified.