2000 years ago, the sea invaded the immense golf course of Saintonge and only a few islands emerged (Rochefort, Fouras, Saint Laurent de la Prée, Soubise…) and marshes were formed. Man turned these into salt marshes and made the area prosperous.
There are still vestiges of this era, Romanesque churches, abbeys, fortified castles, but it is the Sun King, who will definitely change the fate of Rochefort in 1666. On this date, Louis XIV chose Rochefort to build "the largest and most beautiful Naval Dockyard in the kingdom of France" extending up to Ile d’Aix. From this time, a powerful network of fortifications including the Fort Boyard was built to protect the Royal Dockyard.
Rochefort Ocean has the particularity of being very heterogeneous, made up of marshes, old stones, a river, islands, peninsulas...
July 2020, the Rochefort Ocean Agglomeration Community is labeled 21st Grand Site in France (16 towns) : the Charente estuary and the Naval Dockyard of Rochefort.
