Attractions
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Fort Grey is located on Guernsey's rocky west coast, near the infamous Hanois reefs and the site of many historic shipwrecks. The small martello tower contains a museum about Guernsey shipwrecks, with many salvaged artefacts and related illustrations.
During 1940 - 1945, the islands were the only British soil occupied by German troops and huge numbers of defensive positions were built as part of Hitler's Atlantic Wall. Of the population of 40,000, 17,000 were evacuated to England.
The materials and effort spent on the Atlantic Wall was totally disproportionate to the strategic importance of the islands but Hitler was convinced that the British would recapture them. However, the British Government had already decided in 1940 that the islands could not be defended without huge loss of life. By 1943 over five thousand foreign slave workers were working on Guernsey, many of whom lost their lives from exhaustion and starvation. They were guarded by a garrison of 13,000 German troops.
After the D-Day Normandy landings in 1944, the islands became cut off from the rest of Europe and food and fuel supplies dried up. Life became steadily worse with both the occupying forces and islanders suffering from starvation. The cold winter of 1944 made life almost unbearable. However, by the end of December, a life saving Red Cross ship, the SS Vega, docked at St Peter Port with much needed supplies and was to make several more trips up to May 1945. Finally, on 9th May 1945, the German Commander surrendered and the first British Troops landed in St Peter Port from HMS Bulldog.
Many reminders of the German occupation remain. Fortress Guernsey is a conservation programme started in 1993 and has been responsible for the restoration of several German watch towers and bunkers which are now open to the public. The story of the Nazi occupation is told at the Occupation Museum located near the airport.
Every year islanders celebrate their freedom on 9th May, a public Bank Holiday.
Looking at the remnants of the German defences on Guernsey today, the observer cannot fail to be impressed by the sheer scale of the undertaking. Yet these structures are the product of barely two-and-half years work, from early 1942 until the late summer of 1944.
For more information and a complete listing of Guernsey fortifications go to:
Located half a mile from the harbour front in St Peter Port, the castle dates from medieval times and has been used for many purposes over the last few centuries. The story of Castle Cornet is a fascinating insight into the lives and times of those who dwelled here and is a must see attraction for all visitors. The castle also houses a number of museums, galleries and gardens
Open daily 10:00am – 5:00pm from 6 April – 30 October
In addition to single-visit tickets, we offer a wide range of highly advantageous family, season and multi-site tickets which are extremely good value. Organised educational parties are free and our education staff can provide assistance with both planning and implementing such visits.
Address: Castle Emplacement, St Peter Port
Telephone: 721657
Bus Routes: Terminus
Perry's Maps' Reference: Town Map, Page 9
Telephone: 721657
Bus Routes: Terminus
Perry's Maps' Reference: Town Map, Page 9
Guernsey’s unique and charming character, drawn from the French and English influences that shape this Channel Island, provides the backdrop to the Victor Hugo International Music Festival to be held 19 – 28 September 2008. The festival takes the name of its best known resident of all time for it was in Guernsey that Victor Hugo found respite from his political foes for 15 years
Highlights of the classical programme include such international musicians as pianist Piotr Anderszewski, baritone Jonathan Lemalu, the Psophos Quartet, the Cropper/Roscoe/Welsh piano trio and clarinettist Romain Guyot, playing the Mozart clarinet concerto with the Southbank Sinfonia.
At the heart of the festival will be the premier performance of songs based on Hugo’s poetry commissioned from French composer Guillaume Connesson and presented by Jonathan Lemalu and Roger Vignoles.
The City of Paris preserves one of the two houses where Victor Hugo lived the longest: Hauteville House on the island of Guernsey, where he lived in exile for 15 years (from 1856 to 1870).
In 1851 the banned poet left France for an exile which would last 19 years.
On 16 May 1856, thanks to the success of his Contemplations, Victor Hugo bought Hauteville House in Guernsey, a large white building with a garden overlooking the sea. An enthusiastic collector of secondhand furniture and bric-à-brac, he brought back a profusion of chests, sideboards, carpets, mirrors, crockery, figurines and other objects from his excursions around the island. He put his boundless imagination to work on the house, spending months overseeing a major conversion on a medieval pattern, which gave this unique building an inner force and mystery.
Hugo lived in Hauteville House until 1870, when he returned to France after the fall of the Second Empire, but he stayed here again for a year in 1872-73, for a week in 1875 and for four months in 1878. Here he completed many of his masterpieces, including La Légende des siècles, Les Misérables, William Shakespeare, Les Chansons des rues et des bois, Les Travailleurs de la mer and L’Homme qui rit.
In March 1927, the centenary year of the Romantic Movement, the house was donated to the City of Paris by the poet’s descendants Jeanne, Jean, Marguerite and François.
Hauteville House has been preserved exactly as it was. Hugo’s abundant creativity is displayed in the astonishing richness of its decoration. As Charles Hugo put it, the house is "a veritable three-storey autograph, a poem in several rooms".
To learn more go to: www.victorhugo.gg