Inside Barrage Vauban

I was pleasantly surprised with the Barrage Vauban. I thought that it basically is a bridge which I would cross to get to the other side. There weren’t any windows inside the barrage, at least the ones that I could get to but there was a promenade on top of the barrage where you can have sweeping views of the Petite France quarter of Strasbourg. I wasn’t expecting this. I am not the type who would try to see what are the must take photos in a place but I just happened to stumble into this and I think this is indeed on of the signature views of Strasbourg.

Inside the barrage itself is pretty straightforward. There was only one path and that was forward. You can choose to walk all the way to the end of the promenade above or just walk through the barrage itself. I did both. I walked all the way to the end of the promenade and went back in to walk the other way back. You can see some of the mechanism which makes the barrage work. There are chains which are probably used to lift the gates of the barrage to release water. You can’t see all the way down so I can only imagine that is how it worked. Curiously, there were church artifacts that are stored here. It was almost like there was an old church that was demolished and they needed a place to keep the statues. Well, some of these statues found their way here. I don’t know what is the story behind this, but I thought it was a strange sight to see.

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