The Barrage Vauban is a dam that was designed to drown an entire district. Built in the 1680s by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, Louis XIV's military engineer, this covered bridge spans the River Ill at the western edge of Strasbourg's Grand Île.

Its defensive logic was simple but brutal: if enemy forces approached, the sluice gates could be opened to flood the southern part of the city, transforming the surrounding land into an impassable moat.

The system was tested just once, during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, when Prussian troops besieged Strasbourg. Today, the dam houses a gallery, and its rooftop terrace offers views across the medieval Ponts Couverts towers and La Petite France's timber-framed houses.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace the dam's place within Strasbourg's layered fortifications, connecting Vauban's engineering to the city's turbulent history of sieges, annexations, and the struggle to preserve Alsatian identity.