Halifax Citadel
Fort George, the star-shaped Victorian fortress crowning Citadel Hill above Halifax harbour.
Four successive forts have stood on Citadel Hill since Halifax was founded in 1749. The present structure, Fort George, was begun in 1828 to designs by Colonel Gustavus Nicolls of the Royal Engineers and completed in 1856, by which time advances in rifled artillery had already made its masonry defences obsolescent. It never fired a shot in anger. The fort is a masonry bastioned work with a dry ditch, ravelin and defensible gate, laid out to command the harbour approaches and the Royal Navy dockyard below.
The citadel was transferred to Canada in 1906 and designated a national historic site in 1935; Parks Canada now presents it as the year 1869, with costumed interpreters of the 78th Highlanders and the Royal Artillery. The noon gun has been fired almost daily since the nineteenth century, and the Old Town Clock of 1803 stands on the hill's eastern slope. The Army Museum occupies the Cavalier Building, and the ramparts give a broad view over the city and harbour.
Highlights
- Noon gun fired daily from the ramparts
- 78th Highlanders and Royal Artillery living-history garrison
- Old Town Clock of 1803 on the eastern slope
- Army Museum in the fort's Cavalier Building
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