Fort Boyard is a symbol of modern television and the name of a popular television game, the rights to which are successfully sold around the world. Dozens of countries have already shown national versions of the game, Russia is no exception. In the fall of 2021, the next season of the Russian adaptation of the show will be released. In addition to some of the characters of the fort and the trials, all versions of the program are united by Fort Boyard itself, an authentic historical site on the territory of which the shooting is taking place.
The stone fort is located off the Atlantic coast of France in the Antjos Strait. Without the appearance of the TV game, this fortification object would have come to complete desolation and would have simply collapsed from old age. However, fate had a different outcome for Fort Boyard. It so happened that the French long-term construction, never fulfilling the role for which it was conceived and built, by the will of fate became one of the most famous sea forts on the planet.
First attempts to build Fort Boyard
It is known that the epic with Fort Boyard lasted for almost two centuries. The idea of building a fort dates back to the 17th century. Since 1666, several attempts were made to build a fort, only the one that was undertaken in the 19th century was successful, but even then the construction stretched out for decades.
For the first time, they started talking about the construction of the fort back in 1666, when the Minister of Finance of the era of the reign of Louis XIV initiated the creation of a shipyard for the construction of warships near the city of Rochefort. The city itself and the shipyard were located at the mouth of the Charente River, located in southwestern France. Until the 19th century, this river remained the main route for transporting goods from the Atlantic coast to the central regions of the country.
When the river flows into the Bay of Biscay, the Atlantic Ocean in the immediate vicinity of the large seaport of Rochefort Charente forms an estuary almost 15 kilometers long. The bay itself and the estuary were convenient for ships. Therefore, the military dockyard built in Rochefort was vulnerable to attacks by the enemy fleet. At that time, France, like many other European countries, often waged wars with its neighbors. And the main military enemy of France was England, which possessed one of the most powerful fleets.
Realizing the possible risks and trying to protect the infrastructure of the shipyard and the port, the French government decided to build a fort in the Antjos Strait, which opened the way to the mouth of the Chartan River. It was decided to build the fort on a sandbank, which was located between two islands: Ile d'Ex and Oleron. The shoal was called Boyard Spit, and the fort built here will receive the same name in the future. In fact, the name of both the braid and the fort is pronounced and spelled like Boyard, but Boyard's transliteration has become entrenched in the Russian language.
The decision to build the fort was reasonable, but it was difficult to build a strong stone structure on the sandy spit, especially given the level of construction technologies of those years. Therefore, the Marshal of France Sebastian Le Preter de Vauban reacted to the proposals of the engineers with a great deal of skepticism. The proposed project for the construction of the fort was not approved and was rejected.
The idea of building a fort was returned for the second time already during the reign of Louis XVI in 1763 at the very end of the Seven Years' War. During the hostilities, the British managed to land troops on the Isle of Aix twice, which clearly demonstrated the vulnerability of objects located in this French region. The issue of building Fort Boyard was raised again and even a project was developed. However, construction work did not begin this time either, as the project was deemed too expensive.
Third visit to the construction of the fort
The third visit to the construction of Fort Boyard took place at the beginning of the 19th century. By this time, construction technologies made it possible to build such fortifications even on difficult terrain. The idea of construction was returned in 1801.
Submitted by a mixed commission, which included military and civilian builders and engineers, the project of the fortress was personally approved by Napoleon I in early February 1803.
The need to build a fort became especially evident at this time against the background of serious disagreements between France and Great Britain. The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, in which the French fleet was defeated by the British, clearly showed how strong Great Britain is at sea.
Construction of Fort Boyard began in 1804. Since the sandy base of the spit was poorly suited for construction, it was decided to strengthen it with a mound of stones. At the same time, the construction process was very difficult. The stone blocks mined in local quarries could be delivered to the spit only at low tide and in good weather, which changed quite often in the coastal region. In the third year of construction work, it became clear that the previously laid stone blocks push the sand and deepen into it under their own weight.
The situation was aggravated by strong storms that raged in the region in the winter of 1807-1808. The element destroyed two almost finished layers of the stone embankment. Then it became clear that construction is very expensive for the country. In 1809, Napoleon I decided to reduce the size of the fort and start work on a new project, however, in less than a year, the construction was stopped again.
One of the reasons was the serious financial difficulties of France, which has been waging wars across the continent for a long time. By this time, about 3.5 thousand cubic meters of stone had been spent on the manufacture of a stone embankment, and the total cost of the state for the construction of the fort exceeded 3.5 million francs.
Completion of construction
They returned to the unfinished fort again in 1840, when relations between France and England became tense again. Now work was carried out under King Louis Philippe. By this time, the previously laid stone foundation had stabilized naturally. At the same time, the technical capabilities have also expanded significantly. The French builders had at their disposal cement, concrete and hydraulic lime. Thanks to this, it was now possible to make stone blocks for the walls of the fort directly on the spot.
Completion of the "long-term construction" began actively in the second half of the 1840s. So, work on the foundation was fully completed only in 1848, the construction of the basement floor was completed in 1852. The first floor was completed in 1854, the second floor only in 1857, at the same time the upper platform of the fort and the famous watchtower were built. At the same time, the construction work in the fort was completed only in February 1866.
As a result, more than 60 years passed from the beginning of the first construction works to their full completion.
The result of long work was the appearance of a large fort, the garrison of which consisted of 250 people, among whom were not only soldiers, but also a waitress, a washerwoman and two shoemakers. The latter is especially strange when you consider that there was nowhere much to wear out shoes on the tiny island. The length of the fort reached 68 meters, width - 31 meters, the height of the walls reached 20 meters. The dimensions of the courtyard are 43 by 12 meters. According to the plans, up to 74 guns could be placed in the fort, but in practice their number did not exceed 30.
The newly made fort had three main tiers, on which 66 separate rooms were located. On the basement floor of the fort there were storage rooms, as well as rooms for storing ammunition and gunpowder, provisions, fresh water tanks, a dining room, a kitchen, a guardhouse and a latrine. Residential casemates were located above. The reserves of water and provisions for the garrison of the fort should have been enough for two months without a supply from the continent.
Fort Boyard
The long construction time played a cruel joke with the fort.
When the fort was finally ready, no one needed it anymore. The firing range of the artillery by that time made it possible to shoot through the water area of the entire Anthos Strait from the two islands of Ile-d'Ex and Oleron without any problems. For this, only the coastal batteries were enough.
The need for the built fort disappeared almost immediately, while the object remained on the balance sheet of the French military department for many years. At the same time, the fort never took part in hostilities. For a short time, from 1870 to 1872, the fort was used as a prison.
Finally, Fort Boyard lost the status of a military facility in 1913.
After that, the inside of the fort, especially the remaining guns and metal parts, were taken away by marauders. They did not stand on ceremony and undermined some things with dynamite.
Fort Boyard during the beginning of restoration in 1989
Nature and looters destroyed the fort, but the Germans also added their contribution to this process, who during the Second World War used Fort Boyard as a target for shooting practice. As a result of these shelling, the fort suffered serious damage. The Germans almost completely destroyed the breakwaters and docks, and the entire courtyard of the fort was littered with stone debris.
The situation was saved by the fact that in the 1950s the fort was included in the list of historical monuments of the French Ministry of Culture. After that, his state was maintained at least at some minimal level that saved him from destruction.
But Fort Boyard found a real second life only after it became a platform for a popular TV game.
The company that bought the fort began work on its restoration in 1988.
The restoration and reconstruction of the fort was fully completed only in the 21st century. They were conducted in parallel with the filming of the TV game.
The final stages of the work were the restoration of the inner courtyard of the fort, which took place in the winter of 2003-2004, and the overhaul of all the walls of the courtyard, as well as sealing cracks in the foundation of the fort in 2005.
