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The Citadelle of Quebec ((フランス語:Citadelle de Québec)), also known as ''La Citadelle'', is an active military installation and official residence of both the Canadian monarch and the Governor General of Canada. It is located atop Cap Diamant, adjoining the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City, Quebec. The citadel is the oldest military building in Canada, and forms part of the fortifications of Quebec City, which is one of only two cities in North America still surrounded by fortifications, the other being Campeche, Mexico. The Citadelle is a National Historic Site of Canada and forms part of the Fortifications of Québec National Historic Site of Canada. The fortress is located within the Historic District of Old Québec, which was designated a World Heritage Site in 1985. The site receives some 200,000 visitors annually. ==History== Cap Diamant's strategic value was identified by Samuel de Champlain in 1608 and led him to found Quebec City at the base of the escarpment. The promontory was practically insurmountable and thus the only side of the settlement ever to be heavily fortified was the west, the only one not naturally protected by the hill. The first protective wall (''enceinte'')—Major Provost's palisade—was built by command of Governor General of New France Louis de Buade, sieur de Frontenac and completed just in time for the Battle of Quebec in 1690.〔 Three years later,〔 a plan by engineer Josué Boisberthelot de Beaucours for new, 75 m (246 ft)〔 wide ''enceinte'' was developed by the French military engineer Jacques Levasseur de Néré and approved in 1701 by King Louis XIV's Commissary General of Fortifications, Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban. The proposal to build a full fort was deemed by the government in France to be too costly, despite both the importance and vulnerability of Quebec City.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=The French Regime )〕 After the fall of Louisbourg in 1745, considerable work on the battlements took place under the direction of military engineer Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry.〔 The first British Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, General James Murray, saw the weakness of Quebec City's defences (indeed, Murray's post existed precisely because the British had conquered Quebec City four years before Murray's appointment as governor in 1763). He urged the construction of a citadel, but the imperial government at Westminster, like the French before, deemed a large fort to be of little value; a smaller, wooden citadel was built.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Under British Rule )〕 During the American Revolutionary War, after seizing Montreal in the autumn of 1775, American rebels, led by General Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold, attempted to take Quebec on 31 December. There, Montgomery was killed and Arnold wounded and forced to retreat. The Americans attempted to keep Quebec under siege, but withdrew after the arrival of British reinforcements in the spring of 1776.〔 As tensions between the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as fears of further rebellion in British North America,〔 grew in the late 18th century, the British reinforced the defences of their colonies according to a plan drawn up in the 1790s by Gother Mann. The ramparts around the Upper Town cliff and four martello towers (still extant) on the Plains of Abraham were completed before 1812. A citadel was a key part of Mann's design, but no fort was built because the cost was deemed prohibitive.〔 That opinion finally shifted following the War of 1812;〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Its History > A Historic Treasure )〕 as part of a wider improvement of Canada's defences coordinated by the Duke of Richmond, then Governor-in-Chief of British North America,〔 the existing star fort was built between 1820 and 1850 under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Elias Walker Durnford of the Royal Engineers. Intended to secure Quebec City against the Americans and serve as a refuge for the British garrison in the event of attack or rebellion, the Citadelle incorporated a section of the French ''enceinte'' of 1745 and the layout was based on Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban's design for an arms, munitions, and supplies depot, as well as a barracks. That, though, was somewhat of an anachronism by the time of the fort's completion, in comparison to other contemporary European military architecture.〔 Additional buildings were completed in 1850.〔 After Canadian Confederation in 1867, Canada became responsible for its own defence; the British departed the Citadelle in 1871.〔 Two batteries of the Royal Canadian Artillery were established at the Citadelle and an artillery school was opened in 1871, followed by a cavalry school.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Canadian Period )〕 Since 1920, the Citadelle has been the home station of the Royal 22e Régiment of the Canadian Forces. From the late 19th century, living conditions for soldiers at the fort gradually improved; canteens were opened and the casemates were made more comfortable.〔 The preservation of much of the fortifications and defences of Quebec is due to the intervention of Governor General of Canada the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, who also established the Citadelle as a viceregal residence in 1872, reviving a tradition dating to the founding of New France. The Quebec Conferences of 1943 and 1944, in which Governor General of Canada the Earl of Athlone, Prime Minister of Canada William Lyon Mackenzie King, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt discussed strategy for World War II, were held at the Citadelle of Quebec. The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada designated the Citadel as a national historic site in 1946.〔 The fortress was designated as a National Historic Site of Canada in 1980 and, five years later, the Historic District of Old Québec, of which the Citadelle is a part, was placed on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Its History > The Fortress of Old Quebec )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Citadelle of Quebec」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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