The French Quarter is known for its architecture, where layers of history and different Spanish, French, Creole and other influences coalesce into a unique style.
One reader was curious about the streets that serve as boundaries of the French Quarter. They wanted to know whether Rampart Street marked the site of a literal wall. Did the French Quarter once have ramparts, or walls, around it?
Jason Wiese, chief curator for The Historic New Orleans Collection, pointed to the era when the city was governed by Spain in answering the question.
"The colonial city was at one point enclosed by fortifications — during the Spanish colonial period,” Wiese said.
The French Quarter, New Orleans’ oldest neighborhood, was first constructed under French rule. French authority waned after the Seven Years’ War, an 18th-century worldwide conflict that pitted the global powers of France and Great Britain. A series of peace negotiations made to end the war left New Orleans ceded to Spain, as part of the 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau. After power changed hands, Spanish authorities began to make their mark on the New Orleans architectural landscape, with some guidance from the former French rulers.
'Fort-Prints' at the edge of the Quarter
Tulane geographer Richard Campanella wrote about the building of fortifications in an article published in The Times-Picayune in 2017 headlined ".”
Campanella wrote that plans for these fortifications stemmed from French engineers, who, when sketching out plans for the French Quarter’s design, originally envisioned the grid of French Quarter buildings defended by angled fortifications that connected five forts.
This vision was fully realized after the war, when Spanish authorities decided to increase defensive measures due to the tumultuous political landscape.
Wiese described this defense system: earthen ramparts capped with wood palisades that connected to forts, encircling the French Quarter. The fortifications were completed and most prominent during Carondelet's administration in the 1790s, Wiese said.
Formidable defenses
Campanella has a similar description of the defenses that surrounded the Quarter, complete with pickets, firearms and even a moat.
“Spanish authorities erected the five bastions among the ramparts surrounding New Orleans,” Campanella wrote. “Forts Borgoña (Burgundy), San Fernando, and San Juan, which guarded the rear of the city, comprised earthen berms fortified with pickets and timber palisades and mounted with guns, fronted by a 30-foot-wide moat with four-foot-deep water.
"Each bastion was manned by up to a hundred troops, who resided in barracks inside and moved about on banquettes (wooden walkways) open to the sky. Forts San Louis and San Carlos, at the upper and lower river corners of the city, were similar except that their walkways were covered, making them look something like frontier stockades.”
This era of defense did not last long, as the h Purchase and other shifts toward population increase led to the pressing need for more buildings and civilian spaces.
The forts and ramparts gave way to streets and buildings. They are long gone, but Spanish influence can still be felt all over the city.