Editing Calais (section)

===Forts===
[[File:Citadelle de Calais - La Porte de Neptune.JPG|thumb|right|The Citadel of Calais]]

The [[Citadel of Calais|Citadel]], located on the Avenue Pierre Coubertin, was built between 1560 and 1571 on the site of a former medieval castle which was built in 1229 by Philippe de Hureprel.<ref name="CWStc">{{Cite web|title=La Citadelle|url=http://www.calais.ws/LaCitadelle.htm|access-date=5 February 2012|publisher=Calais.ws|first1=June|first2=Len|last1=Riddell|last2=Riddell|archive-date=14 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214075250/http://www.calais.ws/LaCitadelle.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The purpose of its construction was to fend off would-be invaders, but it wasn't long until the city was successfully invaded by Archduke Albert of Austria on 24 April 1596. Both [[Louis XIII]] and [[Cardinal Richelieu]] at one time considered expanding the citadel and Calais into a great walled city for military harbour purposes but the proposals came to nothing.<ref name="CWStc" />

[[Fort Risban]], located on the coast on the Avenue Raymond Poincaré at the port entrance, was built by the English to prevent supplies reaching Calais by sea during the siege in November 1346 and continued to be occupied by them until 1558 when Calais was restored to France. In 1596, the fort was captured by the Spanish Netherlands until May 1598 when it was returned to the French following the [[Peace of Vervins|Treaty of Vervins]]. It was rebuilt in 1640.<ref name="Lepage2009">{{Cite book |last=Lepage |first=Jean-Denis G. G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aeVAPShsbTMC&pg=PA185 |title=French Fortifications, 1715–1815: An Illustrated History |publisher=McFarland |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7864-4477-9 |page=185}}</ref> Vauban, who visited the fort some time in the 1680s, described it as "a home for owls, and place to hold the Sabbath" rather than a fortification.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fort Risban |url=http://www.calais.ws/FortRisban.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208083741/http://www.calais.ws/FortRisban.htm |archive-date=8 February 2012 |access-date=5 February 2012 |publisher=Calais.ws|first1=June|first2=Len|last1=Riddell|last2=Riddell}}</ref> During World War II it served as an air raid shelter. It contains the Lancaster Tower, a name often given to the fort itself.<ref name="Lepage2011b">{{Cite book |last=Lepage |first=Jean-Denis G. G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jpT2BJ0BF_MC&pg=PA275 |title=British Fortifications Through the Reign of Richard III: An Illustrated History |publisher=McFarland |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-7864-5918-6 |page=275}}</ref>

Fort Nieulay, located along the Avenue Roger Salengro originally dated to the 12th or 13th century. During the English invasion in 1346, sluices gates were added as water defences and a fort was built up around it in 1525 on the principle that the people of the fort could defend the town by flooding it.<ref name="CWSfn">{{Cite web|title=Fort Nieulay|url=http://www.calais.ws/FortNieulay.htm|access-date=5 February 2012|publisher=Calais.ws|first1=June|first2=Len|last1=Riddell|last2=Riddell|archive-date=24 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224201719/http://www.calais.ws/FortNieulay.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> In April and May 1677, [[Louis XIV]] and Vauban visited Calais and ordered a complete rebuilding of Fort Nieulay. It was completed in 1679, with the purpose to protect the bridge of Nieulay crossing the [[Hames River]].<ref name="Lepage2010">{{Cite book |last=Lepage |first=Jean-Denis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fzp3MWRNPFAC&pg=PA151 |title=Vauban and the French military under Louis XIV: an illustrated history of fortifications and strategies |publisher=McFarland |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7864-4401-4 |page=151}}</ref> By 1815 the fort had fallen into a ruined state and it wasn't until 1903 that it was sold and improved by its farmer tenants.<ref name="CWSfn" /> The fort was briefly the site of a low-key scuffle with Germans in May 1940.