Standing on a hill overlooking the Plains of Abraham in the City of Québec, Martello Tower 1 is a massively built, two-story plain squat cylindrical tower of solid stone construction.
The Québec Martello Towers National Historic Site of Canada, forms part of the Fortifications of Québec National Historic Site of Canada, in Québec City, Québec. It comprises three Martello towers at some distance from one another -Tower No. 1 stands on the Plains of Abraham,
The British constructed the Martello towers to form a first line of defense within the ensemble of Québec's fortifications by preventing an attacker from drawing close enough to the walls to lay siege. Functional, and massively strong for their time, these towers were essentially elevated gun platforms.
The design of the towers resembled that of a coastal defense tower at Mortella Point in Corsica. The name Martello comes from this. Ironically, the towers, designed to keep Napoleon's army out, were based on a design from the island of Corsica. read more