The Buildings

The Fort consists of three levels built in the shape of a horseshoe joined at the base. On the ground level around the courtyard are 26 large casemates (vaulted rooms) every other one built with gun ports to house very big cannons.

Below this gunfloor is a maze of small and large magazines, passages and tunnels whilst above are the Ramparts with sites for more modern guns and observation posts.

The entrance tunnel, once served by a drawbridge over a ditch, leads into the courtyard. At the south end of the ditch a building juts out from the straight side of the Fort. This is the Caponier, a small fort in its own right, from which infantry might engage an enemy attempting to assault the gate, with its defended barbican above, or to scale the massive escarpment wall of the Fort.