Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The citadel of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port was built in the 17th century at the site of the ancient castle of the kings of Navarre, shaved under Richelieu. The engineer Antoine de Ville drew up the first plans in a context of religious wars and Franco-Spanish tensions. The site, strategic near the border, already included 13th century medieval ramparts, pierced by five fortified gates (including the gate of Navarre, the best preserved). These sandstone walls, with reworked niches and mâchicoulis, surrounded the "high city", organized around the rue de la Citadelle.

Around 1680 Vauban deeply remorse the citadel by applying its characteristic bastioned system: a rectangular central body flanked by four bastions and two half moons at the ends. He partially retained the work of Antoine de Ville, but removed the medieval dungeon and adjusted the defenses (right arches replacing the mâchicoulis, walls linking citadel and ramparts). The complex housed arsenals, pedriars, a chapel and barracks, faithfully executed according to its plans. The citadel was part of a border defensive network including Bayonne, Hendaye and Navarrenx, barring access to Spain.

The "low town", surrounded by a homogenous sandstone enclosure with strongholds and murderous stones, was completed in 1789, while the upper city saw its ramparts restored. After its demilitarization in 1814, the citadel served as a prison during World War I before being transformed into a college in the 1980s. The surrounding fortifications, such as Gaztelumendi's dread, bear witness to military adaptations in the 19th century. Today, the whole (Citadel and dread) has been classified as a Historical Monument since 1963, illustrating the evolution of the defensive architecture of the Middle Ages in modern times.

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