We left Halifax on Thursday, the 16th and drove
northeasterly to a town called Antigonish for the night. It is about half way between Halifax and
Louisbourg, our next real destination.
On Friday we crossed over into Cape Breton which is a large
peninsula on the eastern edge of Nova Scotia.
We arrived in Louisbourg in the afternoon. Louisbourg is famous for it's fortress that
was built in the early 1700’s by the French.
At one time it was mostly in ruins, but the archeologists have uncovered
a major portion of it and it has been restored.
You can find it on the map here - far eastern edge (below the airport sign).
A little history:
The town's name was given by French military forces who founded the Fortress of Louisbourg in 1712 and its fortified seaport on the southwest part of the harbour, in honour of Louis XV. The French fortress was demolished after its final capture in 1758 and the site was abandoned by British forces in 1768.
Subsequent English settlers built a small fishing village across the harbour from the abandoned site of the fortress. The village grew slowly with additional Loyalists settlers in the 1780s. The harbour grew more accessible with the construction of the secondLouisbourg Lighthouse in 1842 on the site of the original French lighthouse destroyed in 1758. A railway first reached Louisbourg in 1877, but it was poorly built and abandoned after a forest fire. However the arrival of Sydney and Louisburg Railway in 1894 brought heavy volumes of winter coal exports to Louisbourg Harbour's ice-free waters as a winter coal port. The harbour was used by the Canadian government ship Montmagny in 1912 to land bodies from the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
Incorporated in 1901, the Town of Louisbourg was disincorporated when all municipal units in Cape Breton County were merged into a single tier regional municipality in 1995.
Louisbourg has its own port with a few fishing boats.
Louisbourg is famous for it's fortress that was built in the early 1700’s by the French. At one time it was mostly in ruins, but the archeologists have uncovered a major portion of it and it has been restored.
On Saturday we drove over to the visitors’ center and then
took a bus over to the fortress. These
pictures show the actual fortress and then the town below.
A very nice church.
This road comes from the fort and into the town.
While we were there, several events were scheduled.
Kids did some dancing for us.
A townsperson being found guilty of stealing bottle of wine and marched from the fort jail to the middle of town and then chained to this post.
A kid’s playhouse (we didn't get pictures of the actual play), but here they are waiting to perform.
Later in the afternoon, there were soldiers marching to the rear of the fort and preparing for cannons to be fired.
They prepared both cannons and then fired them.
It was a great day.
We spend about 6 hours there.
Later we came back into Louisberg and had dinner at the
Lobster House which is right on the harbor.
Didn’t have lobster though – just fish plates.
On Sunday we found the lighthouse (no longer in operation)
but still a sight to see – especially the ocean.
Found a few mushrooms.
This is a shot of the fortress in the background.
Next stop...Cape North.
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