 It could house 3000 prisoners (sometimes as much as 10% of the town's population), children as young as 11 as well as older people.It was closed in 1858, and demolished in the late 1940s.Its construction was launched after Louis XV of France, by an ordinance of 27 September 1748, transferred the (previously independent) galleys to the control of the French Navy, to allow him to provide crews for galleys cheaply.