Pré carré
The Pré carré (literally "square meadow", meaning "backyard") is a double line of fortified towns to protect the wars of conquest of Louis XIV in the 17th century ( Peace in the Pyrenees 1659, Peace of Nijmegen 1678/1679, Peace of Rijswijk 1697 ) northward frontier from France against the Spanish Netherlands . The term was used by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban in 1673 (in a letter to François Michel Le Tellier de Louvois ) with the words Sérieusement, Monseigneur, le roi devrait un peu songer à faire son pré carré . In the barrier treaty , the Republic of the Seven United Provinces was granted occupation rights to part of the fortresses from 1709, which existed until 1781.
The fortress system
The system consists of two lines of fortified cities. The first line ("ligne") includes the - today partly Belgian - fortified towns (no longer existing fortifications marked with (-)) Dunkirk (-), Bergues , Veurne (Furnes) (-), Knokke (-), Ypres (- ), Menen (Menin) (-), Lille , Tournai (-), Mortagne-du-Nord (-), Condé-sur-l'Escaut , Valenciennes (-), Le Quesnoy , Maubeuge , Philippeville , Dinant , Givet ( Fort Charlemont). The second line extends a little south of the first and includes the fortified towns of Gravelines , Saint-Omer (-), Aire-sur-la-Lys (-), Saint-Venant (-), Béthune , Arras , Douai (-), Bouchain (-), Cambrai , Landrecies (-), Avesnes-sur-Helpe , Mariembourg , Rocroi and Mézières .
literature
- David Bitterling: L'invention du pré carré. Construction de l'espace français sous l'Ancien Régime, Albin Michel, Paris 2009, ISBN 978-2-226-18706-2 .
- Michelin travel guide Northern France, Paris area, Clermont-Ferrand 1997, ISBN 2-06-234401-5 , p. 46 f. (with overview plan).