Brouage and its “Graffiti”

Abstract

The soldiers and sailors who garrisoned Brouage left memorials in the form of graffiti crudely done with the knife on many of the stones. They are particularly numerous in two places. The Porte du Sud; much of this gate has been pulled down, but on its ruins we find rough graffiti of weapons, harness, horses’ heads, fortifications, regimental names and badges. Under the vault of the Porte Royale, which opens on to the former quay through the middle bastion of the northern curtain, we see graffiti carved by the sailors. Rough though all these carvings are, they are evidently the work of men who were familiar with ships.

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Filed under: Atlantic | Other (Early Modern) | Other (Nineteenth C) | Other (Eighteenth C)
Subjects include: Harbours & Dockyards | Merchant Marines | Navies