This series highlights Canada's stunning parks and sites that protect the environment and showcases the various historic aspects of our country. Parks Canada protects and administers 37 national parks, 10 national park reserves, 171 (out of 1004) national historic sites, 5 national marine conservation areas, and one national urban park (as of 2023).
The ruins and partial reconstruction of this 18th-century French colonial town (Nova Scotia) (including a bakery, personal residences, King's storehouse, hotel, bastions and gates) recall its short and turbulent history. 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 was annihilated by military conquest. Abandoned after 1760, Louisbourg became the only major colonial town without a modern city built on top of it. In 1961 the Government of Canada began a $25 million project aimed at reconstructing about one-quarter of the original town and fortifications as they were in the 1740s, though many of the replicas incorporate the original foundations. Archaeological excavations have yielded millions of artifacts including the ruins of fortifications and buildings.
The French came to Louisbourg in 1713 after ceding Acadia and Newfoundland to the British via the Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession. France's only remaining possessions in what is now Atlantic Canada were the islands of Cape Breton (Isle Royale) and Prince Edward (Isle Saint-Jean). The French used these islands as a base to continue the lucrative cod fishery off the Grand Banks. In 1719 they began to construct Louisbourg, a fortified town that was only completed on the eve of the first siege in 1745. The town and settlement along the harbour shore soon became a thriving community.
The cod fishery accounted for most of Isle Royale's prosperity. Louisbourg became a hub of commerce, trading in manufactured goods and various materials imported from France, Quebec, the West Indies and New England.
But while the harbour was well defended, the main landward defences were commanded by a series of low hills, some dangerously close to the fortifications. The first attack came in 1745 following a declaration of war between Britain and France. Within 46 days of the invasion, the fortress was captured by the British. Three years later the town was restored to the French by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. In 1758 Louisbourg was besieged a second time as it had no strong navy to patrol the sea beyond its walls, Attacking with 13,100 troops supported by a 14,000 crew on board 150 ships, a British army captured the fortress in seven weeks. They then demolished the fortress walls.
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