Camp of Boulogne

*Napoleon distributing the first Imperial Légion d'honneur at the Boulogne camps, on August 16, 1804* by Charles Etienne Pierre Motte

The Boulogne camp refers to two military camps established around Boulogne-sur-Mer in France.

First camp

The first camp was prepared by Julius Caesar in 54 BC to prepare the fleet for his second expedition to Britain. One hypothesis is that Caesar set up his camp at the current location of the old City of Boulogne-sur-Mer. Some historians believe that the Old City was built on the camp; at a vicinity to Itius port which he cites in Chapter IV of its Gallic Wars:

Caesar returns in Hither Gaul, and from there to the army. When he got there, he visited all neighbourhoods, and finds that the singular activity of the soldiers had managed, despite extreme shortages of all things, to build about six hundred ships of the form described above and twenty eight galleys, all ready for sea in a few days. After giving praise to soldiers and those who had led the work, he instructs his intentions and ordered them to go all the Itius port, where he knew the ride in Brittany is very convenient, the distance this island to the mainland being only thirty thousand steps.

Second camp

The second camp was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803 and continued until 1805. It was here he assembled the Armée des côtes de l'Océan (Army of the Ocean Coasts) or the Armée d'Angleterre (Army of England) to invade Great Britain.

On May 16, 1803, Britain (without a previous declaration of war) seized a hundred French and Batavian ships. France then declared war and Napoleon chose Boulogne-sur-Mer as a base for attacks.

The Boulogne camp housed about 60,000 soldiers in 1805, and was divided into two large camps:

one on the left bank of the Liana, near d'Outreau
another in the area of Vallon Terlincthun and the plateau of the tour d'Order

At the top of the cliff were the command barracks, including that of Napoleon, but the headquarters was located at Castle of Pont-de-Briques.^[1]

Notes & references

^ The Boulogne camp is behind the construction of the magazine. We can especially note the work done in 1841 in the context of strengthening the protection of places: Construction of a wall in stone, paving of the courtyard and a gatehouse and a lightning rod. Powder belonged to the artillery and was paid in 1835 by the Indirect Taxation Administration. The latter are sites of gunpowder and hunting weapons. When Second World War came, the powder bunker was certainly exploited by the Germans who reinforced the site, as evidenced by bunker there. At the end of the conflict, the magazine was abandoned to become a real ruin until the day when the city decided to restore it. The inauguration took place in 1990.