Centre des monuments nationaux

Come and discover the Mont-Dauphin stronghold perching on a rocky promontory dropping away dramatically around it. Located in the Hautes-Alpes between the Écrins National Park and the Queyras Regional Park, it was built by Vauban from 1694 onwards and added to the UNESCO World Heritage in 2008.

Visiting the Mont-Dauphin stronghold 

• An impregnable citadel. Visit the place as conceived by Vauban, with its marble enclosure walls, bastions, military buildings and 17th-century civil residences.

Understanding Vauban and the Mont-Dauphin stronghold 

• Vauban, a visionary military engineer. Sébastien Le Preste, Marquis de Vauban (1633-1707), was Louis XIV's General Commissioner for Fortifications. He designed the King's ‘pré carré', a double line of fortifications along the borders to protect the kingdom. He built or improved over 300 strongholds, as well as writing numerous essays on France's domestic and foreign policies.

• A means of dissuasion. When the region was invaded in 1692 by Victor Amadeus of Savoy, Vauban undertook to improve the Alpine border defences. The place was named Mont-Dauphin in honour of the King's son, the Grand Dauphin. It was completed in 1704, and never besieged. In 1713 the Italian border was placed further away, wholly undermining its strategic significance. The only one case of armed conflict in three centuries was the bombing of a wing of the arsenal during the Second World War.