allAfrica.com: Mauritius: "The citadel was a symbol of Pax Britannia" (Page 1 of 1)

This expert in archeological management has been studying one of the capital 's most recognizable symbols. He tells about the fort's history and its potential as a tourist attraction.

Brian Egloff, President of the Archeological Management Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).

What exactly does archeological management consist of?

What I'm interested in is what's called archeological heritage management, which is a bit different from the academic kind of archeology where you try to discover the oldest and biggest artifacts. What we're trying to do is brush aside some of the debris and surface material and see what we can discover by looking closely at the fort.

What have you noticed during your work on the Citadel?

When we went into one of the areas where there was a kitchen and we began to clear things away, we saw that there are different layers to the kitchen, that the space had functioned in different ways over the past 100 years. As we looked at the courtyard, we saw that it contains different features, the layering of history. It looks like a single episode but it really isn't. There were soldiers there in 1840 and there were soldiers there in 1940. As you can imagine, they lived very different lives. They had different relationships with the city of Port Louis and with their officers. They ate different foods and wore different clothes. What we're trying to do is pick up that layering of history and see how we can interpret it for the public, and how we can conserve the site without compromising any opportunities to present the story of the Citadel.

And what does this story tell us?

That the Citadel serves many functions. It's a symbol of Port Louis because it's a dominant feature of the city. It's also symbolic of the phase in the history of Mauritius when the island became a British colony, when the hopes of France of becoming an empire were diminishing and when the slaves were freed. The fort also speaks for the empire. It was built by the Royal Corps of Engineers, which built things throughout the empire, like the penal colony in Port Arthur, Tasmania. What you had in Port-Louis was the coming together of the British Empire.

Can you tell us a bit more about the structure itself?

The Citadel is extremely well built and designed. It was also built at the end of the period when that kind of fort construction was relevant. Shortly after that period came developments in armaments, such as rifled guns that were able to blast apart masonry structures. For that reason, forts built after that date were made with large earthen embankments that absorbed the rifle fire. The Citadel had some earthen embankments but its walls were vulnerable to breach-loading, rapid firing rifled guns. It seems to me that the Citadel served more as a symbol of the Pax Britannia over the colonies than as a military focal point. The British brought in trained masons and stonecutters who had been working on government buildings in Bombay. That's a bit different from working on a fort as you can imagine. There's high amount of detail and fine sculpting work. The stones are made from hard basalt and fit very closely together, which has allowed them to withstand the rather crude pouring of cement into the floors and roofs. Cement usually leaches into softer stone, which causes it to weaken and coarsen. You don't see much stone decay at the Citadel. However, all the original wood constructions are gone. There's a need to reconstruct the wooden floors and beams and your best bet of finding a way of doing that is to look for some place where it's still conserved. There's a lot of remaining fabric at Fort George. Mauritius isn't exactly spoilt in terms of historical monuments.

How do you suggest we best exploit the Citadel?

I think that "Discover Mauritius" has set in train a process that will both develop the historical aspects of the fort and allow for commercial development. They are searching for the correct mix.

You've worked extensively in Australia. How can Mauritius learn from the Australian experience?

There're only a couple of fortifications in Australia that were built by the Royal Corps of Engineers. There's a Martello tower in Sydney harbour that's similar to the one here. I've worked mostly on the Port Arthur historic site, which is a very large former penal colony built by the Corps of Engineers. It functioned from 1830 to 1860 and it is the symbol of Australians' convict origins. They've had tourism there, in one form or another, for 150 years. And because this major tourist attraction is located in Tasmania, the island south of Australia, it serves to support and enhance the transport links.

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