Fort Boyard
Fort Boyard is not open to the public, so take advantage of a wide range of cruises departing from the Ile d'Oléron (Port de Saint-Denis d'Oléron or Boyardville) to get as close as possible to this majestic stone vessel.You'll also be able to admire the Chassiron lighthouse, or stop off at Ile d'Aix.
An ambitious project for its time
Situated halfway between the islands of Aix andOléron, Fort-Boyard was designed above all to protect the roadstead of Ile d'Aix and theroyal arsenal at Rochefort. The range of the cannons at the time made it impossible to cross fire between the fort de la rade on Aix and the Saumonards battery on Oléron. Between the two islands lies the longe de Boyard. The Dutch mapped this area as "Banjaert", which translates as "sandbank" in Dutch, and which today gives us the name " Boyard " .
Plans to build Fort Boyard date back to the 17th century. As early as 1666, the creation of the Rochefort arsenal, ordered by Colbert, required military protection for the area. France was emerging from the Seven Years' War with England, and the defense of our coasts was of prime importance. However, faced with major technical difficulties, the idea was repeatedly rejected. The great Vauban himself admitted he was powerless to meet the challenge, telling Louis XIV: "Sire, it would be easier to grasp the moon with your teeth than to attempt such a task in this place".
It wasn't until the early 19th century that the project was revived. In 1801, a joint commission made up of engineers from the Engineering Department, the Navy and Ponts et Chaussées submitted a report to Napoleon Bonaparte. The report recommended building a " stone ship " on the Boyard shoreline, following the fortification ideas of the Marquis de Montalembert. In 1803, First Consul Bonaparte approved the project. That same year, the necessary stores and workers' quarters were set up at the mouth of the La Perrotine channel, on the east coast of the island of Oleron, and Boyardville was born. Stone-laying began in 1804. Quarries were opened nearby, notably at the Pointe de Coudepont on Ile d'Aix. The difficulties were immense, between the collapsing riprap, violent storms and the presence of the English enemy.
From shadow to light...
The work stopped, even though over 75,000m3 of stone had already been dumped on the sandbank. It resumed in 1809, on the basis of a smaller construction, but was suspended again the same year after the English destroyed the Rochefort squadron in Aix harbor with the help of brulots. By this time, 3,500,000 francs had already been invested in the project. Thirty years later, under Louis-Philippe, renewed tension between France and England gave new impetus to the Fort's construction. In 1848, the base was erected. Construction of the Fort itself would take over ten years. Total cost was estimated at nearly 3,000,000 francs. The foundations were protected by a belt of Chausey granite. The upper part was made of stone from the Crazannes quarries, the vaults and interior of Saint-Savinien stone, and the embrasures of brick. The work was completed in 1857 with the construction of a lookout post to serve as a semaphore. Two years later, the Fort was fitted with a breakwater to the north and a landing harbor to the south.
Did you know? the Fort's dimensions are impressive: 68 meters long, 32 meters wide and 20 meters high. The fort would have been manned by 250 soldiers and armed with 74 cannons, as many pieces as a three-decker warship. However, only around 30 guns were delivered.
In the mid-19th century, advances in artillery (rifled cannons, replacement of the cannonball by the shell) rendered the barely-completed fort obsolete. It was now possible to crossfire between Oléron and Aix. At the end of the Second Empire, it became a military prison for Prussian and Austrian soldiers. Later, as a state prison for Communards, it saw the passage of Louise Michel and Henri Rochefort before their transfer to the penal colony of New Caledonia.
At the beginning of the 20th century, left to its own devices, it fell prey to looters. In 1950, it was included in the supplementary inventory of historic monuments. In 1962, it was acquired by a private individual when it was auctioned by the estates for 7,500 francs. In 1967, it was used as the final set in Robert Enrico's film Les aventuriers, starring Lino Ventura and Alain Delon. TV show creator Jacques Antoine shoots the pilot for La chasse aux trésors, a game show hosted by Philippe Gildas and Philippe de Dieuleveult. The episode was broadcast on September 6, 1981. Jacques Antoine finally bought the property in 1988 for 1.5 million francs, and sold it for a symbolic franc to the Charente-Maritime General Council, while retaining exclusive use of the Fort. Jacques Antoine, Jean-Pierre Mitrecey and Pierre Launay created the game show Les clés de Fort Boyard. The first episode aired on July 7, 1990, and the concept was subsequently sold to some 30 different countries, making Fort Boyard famous the world over. It's a fitting return for what has long been dubbed "the Fort of Uselessness"!