[Manuscript] Plan des Environs la Citadelle de Strasbourg.

• Price: $750.00
  

  SKU: 84424

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• ARTIST:

• PUBLISHER: No artist's name given.

• MEDIUM: Watercolor, pen & Ink on fine laid watermarked paper.

  DATE: c.1770.

• EDITION SIZE: Sheet size 15 1/2 x 13 3/8" (39.4 x 34 cm)

• DESCRIPTION: A beautiful manuscript plan. <Br><Br> As a result of the Thirty Years War between 1618 and 1648, Louis XIII annexed most of Alsace to France. At the end of the Dutch War between 1672-1678, Louis XIV, the famous Sun King, annexed the rest of Alsace. Although Strasbourg on the Rhine remained a free independent city, it was coveted by the French for strategic reasons. If the French governed both cities, it would be possible to control the Rhine and Lower Alsace. The city was captured by French forces on September 30, 1681. Louis XIV immediately assigned his famous fortifications engineer, Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban, Seigneur de Vauban (1633 –1707), to construct a large fort on the Strasbourg side of the river and a supporting smaller fort on the opposite side of the Rhine in the village of Kehl. On October 3, 1681, just three days after the capture of Strasbourg, Vauban inspected the location and by October 9, 1681, prepared a manuscript plan of the proposed fortifications entitled “Situation of Strasbourg, its faults and advantages." The actual construction of the fortifications took four years between 1681 and 1685. In a 1696 letter to Michel le Peletier de Souzy, Intendant of Finances under Jean-Baptiste Colbert, French Minister of Finances, Vauban described the fortifications at Strasbourg as “the most considerable fortifications in Europe that no power can take. The excellence of the defenses makes them virtually invincible.” The fortifications, Citadelle at Strasbourg and Fort Kehl, served France well for nearly 200 year. They were both partially destroyed during the Franco-German War of 1870-71. At the conclusion of the war, Strasbourg and Alsace were annexed to Germany by Bismarck. All that remains of the old Citadel today is one of the five walls, preserved as the centerpiece of the Park de la Citadelle which opened in 1967. Some of the old defense water moats are still preserved in the park as part of the landscaping.

• ADDITIONAL INFO:

• CONDITION: Very good condition and color.

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• CATEGORIES: Maps