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The reason I started building this model is pretty simple. I wanted to see Louisbourg as it actually looked when it was a living French town, not just the small section we see today. Only 1/4th of the original fortress has been reconstructed at the site. The other 3/4th were never rebuilt, mainly because the reconstruction would be an enormous and expensive project. Much of the original town is now archaeological ground that Parks Canada works to preserve rather than rebuild.

“He’s loved this historic site all his life. Now he’s rebuilding it digitally”

Cape Bretoner Daniel MacNeil has painstakingly created a digital reconstruction of the Fortress of Louisbourg, a national historic site. The CBC’s Ethan Hunt explores this undertaking and Parks Canada’s plans to incorporate it. CBC News – Sep 06, 2026

RECENT UPDATES & REVISIONS:

The Convent – (CONGREGATION DE NOTRE DAME)

• _{First on Cape Breton Island, then in exile in France, the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre-Dame served the people of Louisbourg for many decades. Their aim was always to educate young girls, and in that they were an unqualified success. The Sisters’ achievement was all the more remarkable in light of the many difficulties and hardships they had to overcome. The story of the Congregation of Notre-Dame at Louisbourg reveals a great deal about the 18th-century fortified town. It also shows how the Sisters’ commitment to duty, through perseverance, led to fulfilment and accomplishment. The Congregation of Notre-Dame The Congregation of Notre-Dame, like many of the religious orders and communities which helped shape society in New France, was founded in the 1600s. More so than the 18th century, the 17th century was a time of profound missionary zeal and fervour.}

The King’s Hospital (Hôpital du Roi)

The King’s Hospital (Hôpital du Roi) in Louisbourg was established by the French Crown in 1716 and served as the largest hospital in North America through the first half of the 18th century.

Founded in 1716 at the Fortress of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia (Ile Royale), the hospital was managed and operated by the Hospitaller Brothers of St. John of God (also known as the Brothers of Charity), who acted as nurses, physicians, pharmacists, and spiritual advisers.
Unlike colonial English hospitals, which primarily served local townspeople, the King’s Hospital catered heavily to French soldiers, sailors, and military personnel, as well as local settlers and the poor.

The King’s Bastion – Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site

• No stately courthouse or town hall crowns the hilltop in this town. The edifice that dominates Louisbourg is autocratic and military, and you slip into it through a narrow break in its defences, eyed by a sentry at arms. The citadel is at once the seat of government and the keystone of military power. It isolates itself from the town, yet it is full of the daily routines of more than 500 people who lived inside.

• From the ramparts you can survey the whole system of fortification. In the apartments of the governor and the barracks of his men, consider the bonds between the great and small of society. In the chapel, ponder their faith. The citadel is many activities pulled into harmony by the military architecture of the royal engineers.

The Bastion de la Reyne (Queen’s Bastion)

The Queen’s Bastion sits running seaward from the central King’s Bastion, mirroring the placement of the Dauphin Bastion on the opposite side as part of the intricate 18th-century Vauban-style geometry designed by French military engineers.

It was built to interlock fire across the front of the fortress, covering the dry ditches and sweeping the outer slopes (glacis) with musket and artillery fire to deny entry from the sea-facing and land approaches.

Unlike the fully reconstructed King’s Bastion, much of the Queen’s Bastion remains as grassy historical remains, earthworks, and archaeological foundations following the 1760 British demolition and subsequent 20th-century preservation by Parks Canada

Royal Battery

Royal Battery National Historic Site, located within the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site in Nova Scotia, is an archaeological site that dominates the north shore of Louisbourg Harbour. Appearing as a low grassy ridge, the outline of the battery’s ditch and glacis are still evident, as are the mounds that mark the remains of the flanking towers. The official recognition refers to the archaeological resources and landscape of the designated place in their existing spatial relationships.

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This project represents an effort to digitally preserve and reimagine Louisbourg as it appeared at the height of its development in the 18th century, allowing modern audiences to experience the scale and complexity of the original fortified town. 

Rebuilt polygon by polygon in Google SketchUp as it was in 1750.

Platform Engine: Google SketchUp 2026 / 1:1 Scale Precision 

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To ensure historical accuracy, the reconstruction is based on a combination of historical maps and blueprints, LiDAR terrain data, archaeological and heritage documentation, and contemporary photographic references. Existing reconstructed buildings were cross referenced using Google Street View imagery, while historical plans and elevation drawings were used to model structures that no longer exist. LiDAR data was utilized to accurately position walls, earthworks, streets, and other landscape features within the digital environment.¹

“In 1961, the Government of Canada began a $25 million project aimed at reconstructing approximately one-quarter of the original town and fortifications. Within this area the buildings, yards, gardens and streets are being recreated as they were during the 1740s, immediately preceding Louisbourg’s first siege. Almost all of the buildings on site are reconstructions built between the 1960s and 1980s, though many incorporate original foundations. Abandoned after 1763, Louisbourg became the only major colonial town without a modern city built on top of it.” The reconstructed site – Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site

https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/ns/louisbourg/decouvrir-discover/visite-tour

Siege Statistics:

Watch the 3D Model Come To Life

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How was it rebuilt? The sheer amount of surviving information

• Parks Canada Agency
• Date(s) 21-Jun-65
• Repository – Beaton Institute Archives
• Reference code – CA BI FOL-G3481

The French administration kept extensive bureaucratic records because Louisbourg was a major military, naval, commercial, and colonial centre. Engineers and military surveyors produced architectural plans, elevations, sections, maps, and fortification drawings.

Government officials generated correspondence, reports, inventories, financial records, construction documents and military records. Approximately 750,000 pages of historical documents and 500 maps and plans were copied from archives in France, England, Scotland, the United States and Canada during the research associated with the reconstruction.

© 2026 Avalon Design Studio

_{The digital reconstruction of the Fortress of Louisbourg is an original creative and technical work by Daniel MacNeil / Avalon Design Studio. The 3D modeling, digital reconstruction, visualizations, artwork, presentation materials, documentary concepts, and original creative assets produced for this project are the intellectual property of Daniel MacNeil / Avalon Design Studio, unless otherwise credited or identified as third-party historical source material. The project is based on extensive historical research, archival documentation, period plans, maps, archaeological evidence, and publicly available historical records. Those historical sources remain the property of their respective institutions and creators.© 2026 Daniel MacNeil / Avalon Design Studio. All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce, modify, distribute, or commercially use the original digital reconstruction or project materials without permission.}

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