As a region at the heart of movements of peoples and of invasions, the Ardennes has defended itself over the course of the centuries. At the start of the XVth century, Evrard III de la Marck embarked on the construction of a formidable castle in Sedan which still today remains the largest edifice of its kind in Europe.
In 1555 Charles V, feeling himself threatened by the French kingdom, gave the order to build, on the rocky limstone promontory at Givet, an impregnable citadel which was to bear his name: Charlemont, which was extended by Vauban in 1678. In the mid-XVIth century, faced with this move by Charles V, the French king Henri II built the stronghold of Rocroi and its star-shaped fortifications. It was to be the scene of a terrible battle in 1643 and rebuilt by Vauban in 1675.
In the XIXth century the military engineer General Séré de Rivières, considered to be the XIXth century's Vauban, built the Les Ayelles fort and gun battery following the 1870 defeat. It is currently undergoing refurbishment.
Later, in the XXth century, France constructed the famous Maginot Line. The only one of its forts attacked by the Germans is the one at Villy-la-Ferté in the Ardennes. 104 French soldiers were killed there on the 19th May 1940.
An impressive tour will take you through a maze of tunnels 35 metres below ground.