September 02, 2024

The Mighty Fort Of The Halifax Citadel


The Halifax Citadel is what I would consider to be the iconic landmark of Halifax. The Halifax Citadel is a Victorian-era fort situated on the top of Citadel Hill overlooking downtown Halifax. I could not be in Halifax and not check out the Citadel, so I work up one early morning and made my plan to visit the fort. Halifax was already a hilly city, but I would have to further walk up Citadel Hill to enter the fort. 




I did capture some nice pictures of downtown Halifax while I was walking up the hill, including the Old Town Clock that sits on the foot of the hill.


There were these robot lawn mowers mowing the lawn surrounding the Citadel, which I thought was cool. I would imagine that mowing the lawn manually would be quite difficult because of the size and gradient of the lawn itself.



The Halifax Citadel is now a National Historic Site operated by Parks Canada. I pay the reasonable entry fee and enter the fort. I walk through this little tunnel to reach the large courtyard that encompasses the center of the fort. The courtyard was so expansive, and already I could see that there are so many things to see. I could head upstairs and walk around the perimeter of the fort, giving me 360-degree views of Halifax. I could go inside the fort itself and see the various exhibitions. I could stay in the courtyard and watch the cadets practice their marches. I did all those things.



Dotted around the courtyard were squads of cadets in ceremonial garb practicing their marches and walks. Some were even holding rifles (though I am sure that those rifles are not real and do not actually fire). I was taking to one of the attendants (also dressed like a British royal guard for the part) and I was disappointed to hear that the groups of cadets were not part of any specific regiment, but only there for demonstration purposes for the visitors. Whenever I had to walk across the courtyard to go to the upper level or go to an exhibition, I had to try to avoid the path of the marching cadets, which was surprisingly difficult as they would change direction on a whim and I had to react swiftly to avoid getting a yelling from the cadet leader. 






I walked around the outer perimeter of the fort to check out the views surrounding the city, and I could see a fair bit of the city from this vantage point. In the distance, I could spot a cruise ship docked on the port (which I will briefly talk about in the post about all the other Halifax stuff I did).





There were also some cannons and mortars around the fort as well, and I assumed that these were not live either, though I did see some shells in a cubby in the fort, so maybe I am wrong?







I also went to check out a few exhibitions around the fort highlighting the history of the fort and the general area of Halifax, from the indigenous settlers to the occupation of the British and onward. There was also an army museum in the main building of the Citadel where the cafe and gift shop were.



Let me talk about one of the stranger experiences I had at the Citadel. The Halifax Citadel has a re-creation of Juno Beach on D-Day on the side of the fort. I had to walk down this deep, dark tunnel to get to this area. What made this experience so strange was that I was the only person here. Imagine you were the Germans trying to hold the beach and only I was the invading allied force, except that there were no Germans, only me. The exhibition had all the props that you would normally associate with D-Day, and I got to tell you, this experience was surreal, to say the least.


That sums up my experience visiting the Halifax Citadel. There was a lot to see indoors and outdoors on the Citadel grounds for a reasonable $14 entry fee. At noon, there is a ceremonial firing of a gun to signify the noon hour but I did not stay for that. This was a good morning walk for me to go see Halifax from the top of Citadel Hill and I would recommend checking out the Halifax Citadel for a morning or afternoon.

More pictures/videos below:















No comments:

Post a Comment