Citadelle de Lille

The Citadelle de Lille is defined by its massive, symmetrical pentagonal shape and a series of five bastions that form a protective star. Constructed between sixteen sixty-seven and sixteen seventy-one by the military engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, this fortress was commissioned by King Louis the Fourteenth shortly after he conquered the city. Vauban nicknamed the site the Queen of Citadels, designing it as a primary defensive hub within a larger network of twenty-eight fortified towns known as the Pré Carré.