Protecting the Upper Town

Québec’s promontory provided a natural defense against attackers, but its western flank opened onto the countryside and was vulnerable, leading to enormous spending to protect that side of the town. In 1690, Governor Frontenac hastily erected a front line of defense there against William Phip’s British soldiers who sailed from Boston. By 1693, that work had been replaced by a more elaborate fortification designed to withstand artillery fire, but it proved ineffective because it did not follow the land’s uneven slope. It was therefore modified in 1712, and the Dauphine Redoubt in Artillery Park is one of the surviving parts of this new line of defense.

Quebec · Canada