Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban
Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, Seigneur de Vauban and later Marquis de Vauban (1 or 4 May 1633 – 30 March 1707), commonly referred to as Vauban, was a Marshal of France and the foremost military engineer of his age. He is known for his skill in both designing fortifications and breaking through them; his ideas, starting from Pagan's "Les Fortification", were the dominant model of siegecraft and fortification for nearly 100 years. He also advised Louis XIV on how to consolidate France's borders, to make them more defensible. Vauban made a radical suggestion of giving up some land that was indefensible to allow for a stronger, less porous border with France's neighbours.
Life and doctrines
Vauban was born in Saint-Léger-de-Foucheret (renamed Saint-Léger-Vauban in his honour in 1867), in Burgundy France, into a family of minor nobility. At the age of ten he was left an orphan in very poor circumstances, and his boyhood and youth were spent amongst the peasantry of his native place. After some time he was put under the care of the Carmelite prior of Semur, who undertook his education, and the grounding in mathematics, science and geometry which was important in his subsequent career.
Vauban (disambiguation)
Vauban may refer to:
Vauban (train)
The Vauban is an express train that links Brussels Midi/Zuid in Brussels, Belgium, with Switzerland, and previously also extended to Italy. Introduced in 1988, it is operated by the National Railway Company of Belgium (NMBS/SNCB), the Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois (CFL), the SNCF, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-CFF-FFS), and previously also the Italian State Railways (FS).
The train is named after Sébastien Le Prestre (1633–1707), Seigneur de Vauban and later Marquis de Vauban (and commonly referred to as Vauban), who was a Marshal of France and the foremost military engineer of his age.
As of 2015, the Vauban was one of two EuroCity train-pairs running daily between Brussels and Basel, Switzerland; the other was the EC Iris.
History
The Vauban began operating on 29 May 1988, and was classified from the start as a EuroCity (EC) service. It originally carried through coaches to Milano, running via Lugano and Chiasso southbound and via Brig northbound, but was not classified as an EC south of Basel.
