page_title: Fort Senneville
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Fort Senneville / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue on the Isle of Montreal Français&#160;: Carte de Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue sur l'Île de Montréal
context_page_description: Fort Senneville is one of the outlying forts of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, built by the Canadiens of New France near the Sainte-Anne rapids in 1671. The property was part of a fief ceded to Dugué de Boisbriant in 1672 by the Sulpicians. A large stone windmill, which doubled as a watch tower, was built on a hill by late 1686 and featuring machicolation and other castle-like features. The fort was burned down by Iroquois in 1691, with only the mill itself left standing.
  Governor-General Frontenac ordered the construction of a second, more imposing fort in 1692. It was rebuilt in 1702–1703 to protect the nearby fur trading post. With extensive cannons and swiveling wall guns, it was the "most substantial castle-like fort" near Montreal. It was eventually destroyed in 1776 by Benedict Arnold, under American military control, but the ruins have been maintained since then. In 2003, it was classified as a historic site.
context_section_description: Thanks to the tireless work of French explorers, the colony of New France covered the largest area, but it was numerically inferior to the neighbouring New England. Consequently, a number of Ingénieurs du Roi ("King's Engineers") were appointed to make the colony the best fortified in North America:
  In the new colonies, the Spanish start by building a church, the English a tavern, and the French a fort.
  Quebec served as the only fortified city in the Americas, centred on the Citadelle of Quebec. An unusual feature of Montreal's defence was a string of 30 outlying forts to protect against the constant Iroquois threat to the expansion of French settlements. The majority of these were simple stockades, but as artillery was not as developed as on the battlefields of Europe, some of these were built like the fortified manor houses of France. Roughly four of these were substantial stone forts which served as defensive residences, sometimes considered "true castles", as well as imposing structures to prevent Iroquois incursions. Initially, Fort Senneville was a French stockaded fort, built in 1671 about half a mile above the Sainte-Anne rapids. The property was part of a fief ceded to Dugué de Boisbriant in 1672 by the Society of Saint-Sulpice, and subsequently relinquished in payment of a debt to two of the most significant figures in New France's history: Jacques Le Ber and Charles Le Moyne, who used the site as a fur-trading post.
  A large stone windmill was built on a hill by late 1686, doubling as a watch tower over the Ottawa River, the Lake of Two Mountains and the mouth of the Des Prairies River. This windmill was like no other in New France (although a similar fortified windmill was later built in Quebec), with thick walls, square loopholes for muskets, with machicolation at the top for pouring lethally hot liquids and rocks onto attackers.
  In October 1687, the nearby Fort Sainte-Anne and the Senneville mill were attacked by Iroquois, and although several settlers were killed, the attackers were repulsed. A second attack was more successful in 1691, and the fort was burned down. Only the mill itself was left standing.
caption: Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, within the Island of Montreal.
exif: {}