Charente-Maritime is the department of islands and castles, a region of marshes, estuaries and coastlines indented by peninsulas and islands — Ré, Oléron, Aix — which for centuries was a key battleground in the Anglo-French wars and the Wars of Religion. Its castle heritage bears the mark of these conflicts: bastioned citadels designed by Vauban, medieval fortresses with thick walls, and coastal defence towers.
La Rochelle, the former Protestant capital whose medieval towers in the Old Port are its symbol, withstood a fourteen-month siege led by Richelieu in 1628 before capitulating. The citadel of Château-d’Oléron, Fort Boyard, whose unusual silhouette rises from the middle of the Pertuis d’Antioche, and the citadel of Saint-Martin-de-Ré, designed by Vauban and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site… The fortifications along the Charente coast form a defensive complex unique in France.
Rochefort, the naval town founded by Colbert, and Saintes, formerly Mediolanum Santonum, whose Roman amphitheatre bears witness to the region’s early Romanisation, complete a heritage landscape of remarkable diversity.