Fort Coligny
Encyclopedia
Fort Coligny was a fortress founded by Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon
Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon
Nicolas Durand, sieur de Villegaignon, also Villegagnon was a Commander of the Knights of Malta, and later a French naval officer who attempted to help the Huguenots in France escape persecution.A notable public figure in his time, Villegaignon was a mixture of soldier,...

 in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 in 1555, in what constituted the so-called France Antarctique
France Antarctique
France Antarctique was a French colony south of the Equator, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio...

 historical episode.

For protection against attacks by hostile Indians
Indigenous peoples in Brazil
The Indigenous peoples in Brazil comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country prior to the European invasion around 1500...

 and the Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

, Villegaignon built the fortress with the help of the 500 colonists who travelled with him in two ships armed by the king of France, on a small island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 called Serigipe by the Indians of the region, near the mouth of the large Guanabara Bay
Guanabara Bay
Guanabara Bay is an oceanic bay located in southeastern Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro. On its western shore lies the city of Rio de Janeiro, and on its eastern shore the cities of Niterói and São Gonçalo. Four other municipalities surround the bay's shores...

. The island was rocky and almost barren, but served Villegaignon's purpose of being near the shore, at the same time achieving a good defensive position against attacks from sea and land.

The fortress fell and was destroyed in 1560 under the siege of Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

's navy and troops under the command of Mem de Sá
Mem de Sá
Mem de Sá was a Governor-General of Brazil from 1557-1572.He was born in Coimbra, Portugal, around 1500, the year of discovery of Brazil by a naval fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral....

, third Governor-General
Governor-General
A Governor-General, is a vice-regal person of a monarch in an independent realm or a major colonial circonscription. Depending on the political arrangement of the territory, a Governor General can be a governor of high rank, or a principal governor ranking above "ordinary" governors.- Current uses...

 of Brazil. Villegaignon had already returned to France, in 1558.

The fortress was named as such in honor of Villegaignon's supporter and friend, the French Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...

 and leader of the Huguenots, Gaspard de Coligny
Gaspard de Coligny
Gaspard de Coligny , Seigneur de Châtillon, was a French nobleman and admiral, best remembered as a disciplined Huguenot leader in the French Wars of Religion.-Ancestry:...

. After the foundation of Rio de Janeiro in 1565 by Estácio de Sá
Estácio de Sá
Estácio de Sá was a Portuguese soldier and officer who came to Brazil on orders of the Portuguese crown to wage war on the French colonists commanded by Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon , who had established themselves in 1555 at the Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, in the episode which became known...

 and the expulsion of the French in 1567 a new fortress was built there by the Portuguese, in order to defend the mouth of the Guanabara Bay, by crossing fire with two other fortresses, Guajará and Santa Cruz. This fortress was almost totally destroyed by bombardment in a revolt of the Navy
Revolta da Armada
Brazilian Naval Revolts, or the Revoltas da Armada , were armed mutinies promoted mainly by Admirals Custodio de Mello and Saldanha da Gama and their fleet of Brazilian Navy ships against unconstitucional attitudes of the then the central government in Rio de Janeiro.-First revolt:In November 1891,...

, in 1893. Today, the island, which was renamed Island of Villegaignon, is home to the Naval School
Brazilian Naval School
The Brazilian Naval School is an Academy of the Brazilian Navy, the Brazilian equivalent of the US Naval Academy, located in Rio de Janeiro, on Villegagnon Island just inside of Guanabara Bay....

 since 1938, and is now permanently connected to the continent, near the Santos Dumont Airport.

See also

  • History of France
    History of France
    The history of France goes back to the arrival of the earliest human being in what is now France. Members of the genus Homo entered the area hundreds of thousands years ago, while the first modern Homo sapiens, the Cro-Magnons, arrived around 40,000 years ago...

  • French colonization of the Americas
    French colonization of the Americas
    The French colonization of the Americas began in the 16th century, and continued in the following centuries as France established a colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere. France founded colonies in much of eastern North America, on a number of Caribbean islands, and in South America...

  • List of French possessions and colonies
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