Editing Cherbourg (section)

====Military monuments====
[[File:Cherbourg-Fort-de-l'ouest.jpg|thumb|right|Fort de l’Ouest.]]

[[Cherbourg Harbour]] is the largest artificial harbour of the world. Begun in 1783, the central wall was completed in 1853 and equipped with three forts in 1860. Built {{convert|4|km|mi|abbr=on}} from the coast, the offshore seawall is {{convert|3.64|km|mi|abbr=on}} long, with an average width of {{convert|100|m|ft|abbr=on}} at its base and {{convert|12|m|ft|abbr=on}} at its peak, and a height of {{convert|27|m|ft|abbr=on}}. The three sea walls cover over {{convert|6|km|mi|abbr=on}} combined.

The  fort de l’Île Pelée [fort of Pelée Island], a defensive element to the east of the sea wall, was designed by Ricard and Decaux and built between 1777 and 1784. It was named ''fort Royal, fort National, fort Imperial'', before taking the name of the island on which it was built. It served as a prison during the Revolution.

Fort du Roule (Museum of the War and Liberation) is located on the ''Montagne du Roule''. The location in 1650 of the Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Protection, abandoned during the Revolution, razed in 1870, this highest point of the city [{{convert|117|m|ft|abbr=on}}] welcomed a redoubt to protect the harbour in 1793. In 1853, the present fort was built. The place of the last fighting in 1940, it was reinforced by the Germans in 1943 with a battery located on the hillside overlooking the harbour, below the fort. Composed of four [[casemate]]s for {{convert|105|mm|in|abbr=on}} guns and a position for the direction of firing, with several tunnels and access dug into the rock, for the Germans it became the strong point of the ''fortresse de Cherbourg'' and of the [[Atlantic Wall]]. On 6 June 1954, [[René Coty]] inaugurated the first French Museum of Liberation there. At the end of a winding road named ''chemin des Résistants'' [Path of Resistants], the fort offers a panoramic view of the city and the harbour. The battery and a part of the German ammunition storage tunnels were classified as a historic monument in 1995, and another part is converted into an underground laboratory for measurement of radioactivity for the school of military application of atomic energy.<ref>{{cite book|first=Jacqueline|last=Vastel|title=Le Fort de la Montagne du Roule|language=fr|trans-title=The Fort of the Montagne du Roule|id=À la découverte de Cherbourg [Discovering Cherbourg]}}</ref>