Fort Barraux, Bastioned fortress in Barraux, France

Fort Barraux is a bastioned fort begun in 1597 on the Barraux commune in Isère, designed by the Piedmontese architect Ercole Negro. Its grey angled walls with projecting bastions rise from grassy slopes and enclose pale-walled buildings with steep reddish-brown roofs, the largest an elongated gabled block. A broad green ditch runs between the inner and outer ramparts.

Construction of Fort Barraux, then called Fort Saint-Barthélemy, began on 24 August 1597 for Duke Charles-Emmanuel I of Savoy, after his defeat at Pontcharra in 1591. Lesdiguières' troops seized it by a stratagem on 15 March 1598. The Piedmontese architect Ercole Negro designed it; Raymond Bonnefonds and Jean de Beins modified it in 1608, and Vauban reworked it from 1692 to 1698.

The fort shows how military building techniques changed when new ideas from Italy arrived in the 1600s and transformed the way defenses were designed. Visitors can see how these innovations shaped the structure people built and used for protection.

Guided tours of the fort are organised regularly from May to September. The site is maintained by the commune of Barraux and can also be hired for private events such as weddings and galas, or public ones such as concerts. A 48-metre well inside the walls draws its water from village springs.

A 1/600-scale relief model of Fort Barraux was made in 1693; covering 18 m², it is kept at the Musée des Plans-Reliefs in the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris. Inside the walls, a well 48 metres deep draws its water from springs in the village.