Corps de Garde – vestige de remparts du 14e siècle

The length of the ramparts, their rectangular layout, and the layout of the streets suggest the presence of a Roman post. Originally, there must have been a ditch, easily fed by the Meuse, an embankment and a wooden palisade. In the 1331th century, the archives mention on several occasions the authorization or obligation for inhabitants to sell timber cuts for the repair of the fortifications. (1, 1348st mention, then 1358, 1328). In 1348 Louis Count of Rethel, vowed of Donchery, had the town fortified at the expense of the inhabitants and neighboring villages. These fortifications protected the town: In 1414, bands of "Jacques", in league with the English, roamed and pillaged the country, burned Attigny and a village very close to Donchery: Pont à Bar. At the time of Joan of Arc, in XNUMX the Burgundians attacked Donchery:
"From an inscription in beautiful Latin verse, now lost, it was revealed that the Burgundian phalanxes were terrified by a miraculous apparition on the ramparts of Donchery of a troop of numerous warriors with gleaming weapons. Their horses panicked, and the enemy was forced to flee, often victims of their mounts' fury. The inhabitants attributed this extraordinary event to the intervention of Saint Onesimus, their patron saint." In 1641, after the defeat at La Marfée of Marshal de Châtillon by Frederick Maurice, Duke of Bouillon and Prince of Sedan, and the Imperial troops, Donchery was besieged for six days before Governor Antoine de Saulieu capitulated.

1676 Donchery and its dependencies are united with Sedan. The fortifications of Donchery are demolished

1690 the city was authorized to build a new wall flanked by half bastions, and the land bordering the fortifications was rented to the inhabitants.

The moats of the ramparts were used, on the night of August 13 to 14, 1940, by the Germans to build a pontoon bridge, before launching it on the Meuse and invading France. The Guardhouse, witness to the importance of the ramparts, near the Burgundy Gate.