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Origin and history

The Thionville compound is a defensive system whose origins date back to the Middle Ages, with walls erected from the tenth century to protect itself from Norman and Hungarian incursions. These first fortifications, centered around a royal palace in ruins and a feudal castle (of which the Tower of Puces remains), consisted of a thick wall flanked by towers and surrounded by ditches. Moselle served as a natural defence in the southeast, limiting urban expansion.

In the 16th century, in the face of the evolution of siege techniques and the threat of Franco-Imperial conflicts, the enclosure was modernized under Charles Quint. In 1558, after a French siege, Sébastien van Noyen designed a new seven-base enclosure, incorporating mumps and low seats to adapt the city to artillery. The works, attributed to Baron Jean de Wiltz around 1570, especially strengthen the southern part with ditches and exterior works like half moons.

The capture of Thionville by France in 1643 marked a turning point: Vauban, then Louis de Cormontaigne in the 18th century, rebuilt the fortifications. Cormontaigne added major works such as the Couronné d-Yutz (1746) and the Fort de la Double-Couronne, while engineers such as Quesnau de Clermont and Vitry de La Salle supervised the works. These developments transform Thionville into a heptagonal stronghold, despite apparent irregularities due to the preservation of earlier elements.

The enclosure was declassified in 1902 under the German administration, which destroyed a large part of the ramparts for urban expansion, leaving only remains such as the Gate of the Couronné of Yutz (classified Historic Monument in 1984). This decommissioning coincides with the construction of Moselstellung, a modern defensive line. The materials used, such as the Jaumont Stone or the brick, reflect the successive adaptations to military needs.

Medieval traces, such as the foundations of the terrace near the street of the Munitionnaire or the ditches discovered in 1821, testify to the stratified evolution of the defences. The Tour-aux-Puces, the last vestige of the feudal castle of the Counts of Luxembourg, illustrates the transition between the eras. The 19th century archives, like those of Guillaume-Ferdinand Teissier (1828), documented these transformations before their partial disappearance.

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