 | Fort de Chartres is the last of three eighteenth-century forts by that name erected near the Mississippi River by France's colonial government. From 1720 to 1763 French administration of the Illinois Country was centered at the forts, built successively over a 40-year period on or near the same site. |
| Sitting at the base of Garrison Hill Bluff, almost directly below Ft. Kaskaskia, this stately mansion has remained virtually unchanged since it was built in 1802 by Pierre Menard, the first Lt. Governor of Illinois. It is the only house still standing that was a part of the original village of Kaskaskia. |  |
 | The Cahokia Courthouse was built as a residence around 1740, when present-day Illinois was a colony of France. The building is the oldest courthouse in Illinois and the only one remaining from the state’s territorial period (1787-1818). |
| Fort Kaskaskia State Historic Site preserves the time-worn earthen remains of Fort Kaskaskia, constructed by the French ca. 1759 to defend the town of Kaskaskia. Founded in 1703, the town was for more than a century the region’s principal commercial center, also serving from 1818 to 1820 as the first capital of Illinois. |  |
