Guided tour of the exhibition: When the Navy was at its height: imagining the town of Rochefort (1666–1785)

Guided tour of the exhibition organised by the Heritage Department as part of the celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of the French Navy and the 360th anniversary of the founding of the naval town of Rochefort.
The exhibition:
Founded in 1666 by Louis XIV in a natural environment as sensitive as it was hostile, the Rochefort arsenal immediately developed an extraordinary architectural complex along the river. To serve it, a new town with a regular layout took shape a little later, in the background. The result of a compromise between engineers, architects and the king’s senior officials, it constitutes the first French example of an arsenal town.

This vast royal project did not escape the keen eye of the engineer Claude Masse (1652–1737), who was commissioned by the king to survey and map the coastline. He took the opportunity to write his Mémoires, in which he recounts, in particular, his impressions of the nascent arsenal town and the difficulties surrounding its creation.

Then, about a century later, whilst the arsenal was in full swing to support the American War of Independence, the engineer Pierre Toufaire (1739–1794), a great visionary in the service of the State, proposed ambitious plans to restructure Rochefort, which could have made the town one of the most beautiful places in France, but which the Revolution brought to an abrupt halt.

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