Plan du siége de Badajoz Par l’Armée Française du Midi en 1811.

Original antique map of the siege of Badajoz by the French Army of the South in 1811, engraved by Ambroise Tardieu after Jacques Belmas and published in Paris in 1860. The plan shows the city of Badajoz, located in Extremadura, near the Portuguese border, along the Guadiana River. It depicts the positions of the French troops, the city’s fortifications, the points of attack, and the siege lines during the third siege of Badajoz, which took place between 26 January and 11 March 1811. This siege was part of the Peninsular War (1808-1814) and pitted the forces of Marshal Soult against the Spanish and Portuguese garrison. The plan was published almost fifty years after the events, in a work on military engineering. Jacques Belmas (1774-1854) was a French military engineer who took part in numerous Napoleonic campaigns and wrote several treatises on fortifications and sieges. Ambroise Tardieu (1788-1841) was a Parisian engraver and cartographer specializing in geographical and military maps. Copper engraving.