Museum of Relief Maps

The Musee des Plans-Reliefs houses a collection of intricate, scale models of fortified towns across France. King Louis the Fourteenth commissioned these three-dimensional maps starting in sixteen sixty-eight to help his military engineers plan defenses and conduct sieges. The master model maker, Gaspard Maillot, built the first of these, ensuring every ditch and rampart appeared in exact proportion. Today, these wooden landscapes reveal how the Sun King exerted his control over his borders, one walled city at a time.