Fortress of Louisbourg: Canada’s first megaproject

Construction of the Fortress of Louisbourg was Canada’s first megaproject.

Reconstruction of the fortress and surrounding town also deserves a place in the history books.

It’s the largest historical settlement reconstruction project ever undertaken in North America.

Through the 17th and 18th centuries Britain and France had jostled for position in North America, in pursuit of furs and Atlantic coast fisheries. However, events in Europe determined the course of history in what is now Atlantic Canada.

The War of the Spanish Succession (1702-15) pitted England, Holland, Austria and other countries against France. Under the treaty of Utrecht, signed in 1713, France ceded Acadia, Newfoundland and the Hudson Bay drainage basin to the English. It retained Ile St-Jean (now Prince Edward Island) and Ile Royale (Cape Breton Island) and some fishing rights.

To solidify its holdings, France began work on the Fortress of Louisbourg in 1719. It was located on the tip of Ile Royale, at the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

However, the fortress wasn’t designed to defend New France, says Sarah Nicholson, a historian with Parks Canada stationed at Louisbourg.

"Ile Royale was its own colony and Louisbourg was chosen as its capital because of its proximity to fisheries and the harbour," she says. "The fortress was built to protect those resources."

The site was chosen by military engineer Jean-Francois de Verville, who was appointed director of fortifications. It was designed by Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban, chief engineer of Louis XIV. The construction contract was awarded to Michel-Philippe Isabeau.

The Fortress of Louisbourg was surrounded on three sides by water and from the rear by marshy ground, which would theoretically prevent attackers from placing artillery within firing range. The walls of the fortress were built as thick as 11 metres in some locations. The structure included 148 cannon emplacements with additional cannons located in the harbour on Battery Island.

"The fortifications were mostly built of masonry pulled from local quarries," says Nicholson. "The lime used for the mortar was also quarried locally and burnt at kilns in Louisbourg. There was a great amount of timber cut from the area for fortifications and for domestic buildings. However, they had to import items that were too expensive to make here. That included iron beams, glass and shingles."

Draft animals used in construction were also imported.

Military personnel at Louisbourg were given the option of taking up the trades during construction.

"Soldiers were notoriously underpaid," says Nicholson. "But at Louisbourg they had the option to serve in construction crews, providing them with a financial boost. There was a lot of grunt work involved. They worked with hand tools and pulleys that were typical of the time."

The most skilled craftsmen were scarce in New France, so they commanded the highest wages.

However, the construction season was short — Verville estimated it at no more than 100 days — and he preferred to overwinter in France.

Construction of the fortress and surrounding buildings was punctuated by controversy. In some years, money ran out before the construction season did. In others, cash was diverted to unrelated projects.

History texts claim that King Louis XV, who assumed the throne during construction, had exclaimed he expected to see the walls of Louisbourg rise above the horizon from Versailles. True or not, construction, maintenance and support costs were staggering—30 million livres, equal to about 23,000 pounds of gold.

"The greatest costs were in the labour over a project that continued for 24 years," says Nicholson.

While the Fortress of Louisbourg loomed large in the minds of British colonists in New England, the military stronghold was far from invulnerable. Soldier morale was poor, supplies ran short, the fortress wasn’t well maintained and it was never fully equipped with cannon.

King George’s War broke out in 1744, again pitting the English against the French. After a two-month siege of Louisbourg in 1745, British troops occupied it. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1748 ended hostilities and Britain restored Louisbourg to the French, in exchange for territory in India.

"When the French returned to Louisbourg in 1749 there was talk of further construction, but France was unwilling to bear that cost after its initial enormous investment," says Nicholson.

The British took the fortress again in 1758 during the Seven Years’ War.

"But they didn’t want to give it back and fight for it again," says Nicholson. "For the next 10 years, they stayed and systematically destroyed the fortifications and homes within the town. Essentially they blew it up."

Little was left but the building foundations and the casemates, bomb shelters built into the walls.

In 1961, the federal government committed $25 million to rebuild one quarter of the fortifications and about one sixth of the town as they would have appeared in 1744.

As part of a historic celebration of the fortress in 2013, retired archeologist Bruce Fry recalled early work on the project: "…when the archeologists saw how the engineers disregarded anything but their own priorities and were unconcerned about archeological remains, they disassociated themselves from the Louisbourg project."

However, the appointment of a senior project archeologist in 1962 changed those dynamics. Site superintendent, John Lunn, who worked on the project from 1963 until 1975 forged a multi-disciplinary team of archeologists, military historians, architects, engineers, and contractors. Parks Canada’s first head of restoration services, Jacques Dalibard, was hired in 1968 and his attention to the Louisbourg project helped to standardize the approach to future historical projects.

"It was really an unprecedented project," says Nicholson. "It represented the first professionalization of public historians in Canada as they looked through hundreds of thousands of documents to figure out how the buildings should look, and their footprint. At the same time archeologists were excavating the site. Our collection to date contains five-and-a-half million artifacts."

The reconstruction combined modern building techniques with traditional building methods. A wall, for example, might feature concrete interiors, but traditional stone exteriors.

"A lot of stone used in reconstruction was original stone used in the fort," says Nicholson. "A fairly impressive family home known as Moxham’s Castle was built with Louisbourg stone. It burned down in 1966 during reconstruction and they took the stone back for the fortress."

Reconstruction was substantially completed by the end of the 1970s.

"But work continues today to maintain the site," says Nicholson. "We count blacksmiths, carpenters, stonemasons and other artisans among our staff and they can regularly be seen working on the site."