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The Citadel of Montpellier was built between 1624 and 1627, after several rebellions under the orders of Louis XIII in order to keep watch over the town. In the 20th century it became the Joffre Barracks, named after Joseph Joffre, and since 1947 the citadel has been an academic campus - the nationwide famous Lycée Joffre.
In 1621, King Louis XIII arrived with soldiers to quell a Huguenot rebellion; he took over the city after an eight-month siege. The king ordered that a royal citadel close to the city be constructed to control the city and the surrounding region, where there was a large Huguenot population.
The citadel was built between 1624 and 1627 between the fortifications of the Écusson, or old town, and the coastal plain of the River Lez. It was separated from the city proper by a wide esplanade, looking over the floodplain of the Lez. It comprised four bastions organized in a square.
Today the two southern bastions and the wall linking them have been preserved. There is a palm grove planted at the base of the wall. On the west side there remains the Bastion du Roi, which has been broken in multiple places to allow for construction of automobile access roads and pedestrian footpaths between the northern parking lot and the center of Montpellier. The walls and their embrasures are still visible.
References:Spišskà Kapitula, a unique fortified ecclesiastical ensemble, began as a small fortified settlement overlooking Spišské Podhradie in the 12th century. It was the site of the residence of the Provost of the castle, in the no longer extant St Martin"s monastery, and later became a capitulary. This was destroyed in by Tatars in 1241-1243, but the pilgrim"s chapel, in rotunda form and dedicated to the Virgin, survived until the 18th century and the monastery until the 15th century.
The complex of buildings there is based on the Cathedral of St Martin, where building began in 1285 as a three-aisled Romanesque basilica with a chancel at the west end and a double spire. It owes its present form to successive remodellings and additions in the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles.
The Provost's residence was completed in 1281 and further religious buildings were added. Frequent raids by marauding Bulgars and others led to its being fortified in the 14th century. The cathedral was rebuilt in the later 14th century. In 1776 it became the residence of the Bishop and four years later a seminary was established. In 1819 the first teacher training centre in Hungary was founded there.
The Bishop's Palace is largely Baroque, with some excellent interior decorations, like many of the religious buildings in the group. The oval ground plan of the centre of the town is due to its having been fortified in the 14th century. The various religious buildings had defensive functions in this early period. New monastery buildings were erected when the provost"s residence was rebuilt and the whole area fortified. The earlier central fortifications were removed in the 18th century.
Spišské Kapitula is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site Levoča, Spiš Castle and the associated cultural monuments.