- Type
- Fortress
- Built
- 1726 · 18th century
- Site origins
- 1678 per Wikidata – an earlier stronghold or first mention
- Location
- New York, United States
- Coordinates
- 43.2617°, -79.0636°
History
The first post at the mouth of the Niagara was set up in 1678 by the expedition of René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle, and in 1687 the Marquis de Denonville built a fort here that was soon abandoned. In 1726 the French put up a stone building known as the French Castle, presenting it to the Iroquois as a trading house, and in time surrounded it with bastioned earthworks. In 1759, during the French and Indian War, the British under Sir William Johnson took the fortress after a siege of several weeks. Under the Jay Treaty they handed it over to the United States in 1796. In the War of 1812 the British seized the fort in a night attack in December 1813 and returned it in 1815, and the army stayed here until the mid-20th century.
What to see
Restored in the 1920s and 1930s, the fortress is now a museum: visitors explore the three-storey French Castle with its chapel, quarters and well, two British redoubts from the 1770s, a powder magazine and the gates through the earthen ramparts. In season there are drill displays and musket and cannon firing, and the ramparts look out over Lake Ontario and the Canadian shore with the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. The fort lies in a state park near Youngstown, downriver from the falls.
Wikipedia article Official website Wikidata Q362553
Popularity: articles about this site in 11 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).