Fort you Guesclin

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Fort you Guesclin

The Fort du Guesclin is located on the tidal island Île du Guesclin northeast of Saint Coulomb, between Saint-Malo and Cancale in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in France.

The first building was erected in 1026 by a constable from Guesclin. It was a castle protected by two walls, flanked by three towers and a donjon . The water was supplied from a 33 m deep cistern . In 1207, Johann Ohneland , King of England, occupied the fortress until Juhel III de Mayenne regained it. The Guesclins left the fort in 1259 and settled in Plessis-Bertrand. The fort, which fell into disrepair around 1500, was sold in 1589 to Guillaume de Chateaubriant from the Rieux family. The old building was razed and Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633–1707) later built a fortress to protect the coast from the English.

After its military value was lost in 1826, the fort was sold and converted into a holiday home. In 1942 the premises were occupied by the German army and an anti-aircraft gun was installed in the course of the construction of the Atlantic Wall . After the Allied landing in 1944, the fort came into the possession of the Mayor of Saint-Servan. He sold it in 1959 to the singer Léo Ferré (1916-1993), who lived there until 1968.

The fort was sold in 1996 by the heirs of Léo Ferrés to the businessman Robert Porcher (1928–2011), who restored the building and used it as a residence.

Web links

Commons : Fort du Guesclin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 41 ′ 48 ″  N , 1 ° 53 ′ 46 ″  W.