La Rochelle medieval city:
Formerly named Rupella, name coming from the rock the city was founded on by the Poitou dukes in the beginning of the X° century, La Rochelle shines from its tumultuous and complex history. Piece of the France Kingdom, La Rochelle is taken by English crown, taken back by France, and taken again by England untill the 1627-28 siege when France crown starved the city and definetely retrieved its property.
Both commercial and military spot, the city was drawn by those two incompatible worlds. The new XIV°c harbor nowadays called the old harbor is the merchants and armies longings, but is also the object of conquerors desires, from England or Spain.
A fisher's village called Cougnes vas fortified, surrounded by stonewalls and became Rupella, wich spreaded up to the perimeter we can see at the 1627-1628 siege date.
Enjoying its commercial profits, or starved till rats are refined food, La Rochelle's inhabitants always stayed faithfull to their swamps and to this land the history choosed as the homeland of Protestants, those pesky 'Huguenots'.
The Kleioscope offers you to visually and freely discover this place in 3D.
And for my own i invite you to discover its rich history in books and wherever history makes echoes of it.
