The vantage point

We are on the east shore of the harbour on the road which goes from the jetty beach (Anse de la jetée) to the current commercial port.

This watercolour represents the north-north-east face of Fort Mailly

Pictorial analysis

1. “Two views are combined here: a view of Fort Mailly from a position directly opposite the fort, on the other side of the gulley, and a lower vantage point of the rock face. As in his view of the Summer Palace of the Queens of Aragon, Mackintosh contrasts the faceted striations of the rock formation with the clean, white, almost modernist elevations of the fort”. Translated from the English with the kind permission of the author, Professor Pamela Robertson – University of Glasgow
2. Mackintosh shows us a close-up of Fort Mailly and its rocky base, reducing the whole to a purely sculptural game of rhythms and planes, all with a very reduced palette. We are struck by the lack of depth: our eyes stumble on the rocky mass.

Historical guideline

As its name suggests, the Redoubt Mailly was constructed by Marshal De Mailly between 1772 and 1789, during the reign of Louis XVIth.  It was equipped, like Redoubt Bear, with defensively-walled cannons. The redoubt was rebuilt in1858 as part of the creation of the line of defence for the Region in the nineteenth century (Port-Vendres having been declared a military port in 1846), then more recently in the years 1940-1944 by the German army of occupation. It was blown up at the depart of the German troops on 19^th August 1944. It has stayed in ruins. The ruins belong to the municipality of Port-Vendres.

How to get there