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Detailed plan of Plan Du Port-Vendres, showing the fortifications and the Obelisk designed by Sr. De Wailly, with a second map below showing the location of the port on a larger map.
Includes a key identifying 24 important places. The map was prepared by Moithey during the time he was serving as the Royal Geographer.
Port-Vendres, on the modern border between France and Spain, is a modern French Sea Port on the Mediterranean Coast, designed at the behest of the Marechal de France, Count de Mailly (Joseph Augustin De Mailly d'Haucourt). De Mailly entered military service in 1726 as a musketeer, and in 1749 was appointed lieutenant general for the Roussillon and commander in chief of the province. He was exiled by the king in 1753 for having "stolen" one of the king's mistresses. In 1758, he was reinstated as commander in chief, a post which he continued to hold until 1790.
De Mailly was the driving force behind the creation of Port-Vendres as a port and followed plans originally conceived by Vauban to open up and enlarge the existing facilities. From 1776-78, land was dug out and quais were created. As a foil to the enormous amount of construction of flat concrete, De Mailly called in Charles De Wailly, architect and painter to the king, to build the obelisk which has now become a focal point of Port-Vendres. The first stone was placed on 28 September 1780, by Mailly's wife, Felicite de Narbonne Pelet, and witnessed by much of the Roussillon nobility.
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