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Fort Louvois was built between 1691 and 1694, during the reign of Louis XIV, on the Chapus islet, and is about 400 metres offshore in the town of Bourcefranc-le-Chapus in the department of Charente-Maritime. The fort sits opposite the citadel of Château d'Oléron on the island of Oléron. The fort was positioned so that a crossfire from the château and the fort would control the Pertuis de Maumusson (Passage of Maumusson) and impede access to the Rochefort roads from the south.
In 1755 Fort Louvois saw modifications that were intended to keep pace with advances in weaponry. One result was the reduction in the number of embrasures for artillery to ten from the original 16. The battery lost its roof, and the fort also received latrines on the walls. These were the last modifications to the fort.
In 1824 the fort was armed with four 24-pounder guns and three 32-pounder mortars. Then in 1870 it received six 22-pounder howitzers. The fort was repaired in 1875 to undo damage from the action of the sea. At that time it received a telegraph station and six 16-pounder guns.
After the First World War, the French military abandoned the fort. Fort Louvois only saw action towards the end of World War II when bombardment greatly damaged the fort, necessitating later restoration.
Since 1972 the fort has been the site of a museum of oyster farming, and there are oyster beds next to the causeway that joins the fort to the shore. The fort also houses a permanent exhibition that describes the history of the fort and that contains models of fortifications on the Charente coast. During the summer a shuttle boat that operates during high tide takes visitors to the fort; at low tide the fort is accessible via a causeway.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.