Fort Saint Elme
Fort Saint Elme sits perched on a high hill between coastal villages Port Vendres and Collioure on the Mediterranean in southern France. Initially built in the ninth century as a signal tower to warn the castle in Collioure from Arab and Norman invasions.
Early conquests and occupations of the Collioure and Port Vendres meant domination of Argelès to the north, the Elne Plain and the road to Barcelona. Control of the coasts from the tower heights overlooking the harbor prompted evolving defenses. The watchtower joined forces with a series of signal towers built in the twelfth century throughout the region of Roussillon by the Majorcan Kings whose Royal Palace was in Perpignan. A century later, the King of Aragon captured Collioure and built up initial fortifications around the tower base.
In 1538, Emperor Charles V decided to build a larger defensive structure around the existent fortifications and original tower. His Italian architects built a six-branched fortress with walls over twenty-five feet thick. Later, the brilliant military engineer Vaubon further improved the fort’s defenses as part of his protection of the French interior. During the French Revolution the fort was decimated by the French to push out a Spanish occupation and later demilitarized and consequently deteriorated.
In the early twentieth century, the fort was sold to a private owner who restored the structure, but damaged heavily by German troops during WWII. Major restoration began in 2004 and Fort Saint Elme reopened as a public museum in 2008, hosting cultural history programs and exhibitions of historic seventeenth century armaments and period relics.
Researched and written by Virginia Vanneman, Graduate Student in the Department of History, University of West Florida.
