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Vauban
1633-1707
ArchitectHistorical Figure
He drew the border of France. Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, a military engineer for Louis XIV, became responsible for the kingdom's fortifications in 1655, at age twenty-two.
His system, known as the Vauban system, created or improved nearly three hundred fortified strongholds and formed an iron belt along the borders. A master of both siege warfare and defense, he directed attacks on some of the largest strongholds in Europe.
Named Marshal of France in 1703, he left a legacy of such scale that twelve of his works, from Lille, in northern France, to Besançon, in eastern France, are now UNESCO World Heritage sites.
