Chateau Queyras overlooks the Guil, which rumbles or babbles in the gorge depending on the day. A perched citadel, it can only be entered after crossing four drawbridges. In front of you, thick walls dominated by horizontal lines, gunboats, watchtowers and sharp angles: this is Vauban’s work, the master of bastioned fortification commissioned in 1692 by Louis XIV to fortify the medieval castle. To the right, tall dungeons and round towers tell the story of the Middle Ages. This is Fort Queyras: a harmonious combination of 13th-century castles and Vauban fortresses. Enhanced over the centuries by a “poudrière” (powderkeg), casemated batteries and barracks, the vast fort is an overlooking belvedere on the Guil valley.
Eight centuries of Alpine history
In the first half of the 13th century, the Dauphin, ruler of the Dauphiné, had the Château de Queyras built as the heaquarters of his power in the valley. Within these walls, he imagined the châtelain, an official who raised taxes, imprisoned criminals and commanded soldiers. After the Dauphiné was ceded to France, the citadel retained its military function. The castle surrendered to the enemy only once. In 1587, during the Religion Wars, it was taken by Lesdiguières, leader of the Dauphiné Protestants. When the Duke of Savoy invaded the region in 1692, Louis XIV ordered Vauban to build a modern fort with bastions, moats and a half-moons. Equipped with new defenses in the following centuries, the fort was home to alpine hunters, who encouraged the beginnings of skiing in the Queyras. In 1940, they defeated the Italian enemy above Abriès. Disarmed, Fort Queyras was sold to its first private owner in 1955, who restored it and opened it to visitors.
