As a fishing port, military base and centre of commerce, Louisbourg briefly shared front rank importance in France’s overseas empire. Home to a transplanted European civilization, it flourished for less than half a century, and then it was extinguished by military conquest. None of its structures survived the next two centuries.
In 1961, the Government of Canada began a $25 million project aimed at reconstructing approximately one-quarter of the original town and fortifications. Within this area the buildings, yards, gardens and streets are being recreated as they were during the 1740s, immediately preceding Louisbourg’s first siege. Almost all of the buildings on site are reconstructions built between the 1960s and 1980s, though many incorporate original foundations. Abandoned after 1763, Louisbourg became the only major colonial town without a modern city built on top of it.
At the Fortress of Louisbourg, the ruins and partial reconstruction of an 18th century French colonial town recall a short and turbulent history.
