History Main / CitadelCity

* In ''Fanfic/IncarnationOfLegends'', every large city of note, including Orario, has a high wall around them to keep invaders like Rakia and the Empire out. The capital of Altena, Yggdrasil, has its wall made out of ice, with strange symbols etched into it. Despite this, Bell gets the feeling that it's as sturdy as any other nation's wall, almost beckoning invaders to try and breach it.

* On ''Fanfic/CoreLine'' we have the city of Los Angeles, California, which in the aftermath of the disaster that created the titular setting has become an Expy of ComicBook/JudgeDredd's Mega-City One (only with a lot less cynicism).

* ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'': The Last City underneath the Traveler, which has walls and plenty of defenses against encroaching invaders who seek to break in.

* The Human Village in ''VideoGame/TouhouProject'' is basically the humans' stronghold in Gensokyo, and houses enough youkai exterminators to make it ill-advised for rogue youkai to even so much as bother any human in the village. And just in case things start going bad, there is a second line of defense in the village's appointed protector (and schoolteacher) Keine Kamishirasawa, who can outright temporarily hide the entire village's existence (and does so on ''Imperishable Night'').

* In ''TabletopGames/RocketAge'' the Martian city of Kolpith was an unassailable city for many centuries. It fell the moment the French brought modern military technology to bare on its walls however.
* In ''TabletopGames/IronKingdoms'' Caspia the capital of Cygnar has so many walls its called the "City of Walls"
* ''TabletopGames/ObsidianAgeOfJudgement'' has the Zone, a massive fortified cityscape 1,280 stories high and 22 miles long and the last major habitat for humanity in North America after a massive [[TheLegionsOfHell demonic invasion]]. The Zone isn't just big, almost every metre of it is studded in artillery cannons that fire thermobaric shells and the Zone can unleash hordes of battle vehicles and bionic soldiers to counter-attack anything Hell can throw, including mountain-sized demons.
* ''TabletopGames/WarhammerFantasy'': Most important cities have walls and other systems of defense due to the ForeverWar nature of the setting.

* The city of Lyrias in ''Manga/AkagamiNoShirayukihime'' is protected by thick defensive walls and a series of well guarded gates though some residential buildings have sprawled to the outside of the walls. In addition to hosting an impressive [[GreatBigLibraryOfEverything series of libraries]] in the academy district the city is also a northern checkpoint for goods and people entering the kingdom of Clarines.

* ''FanFic/FallOfLiberty'': Algonquin quickly becomes this as the plague spreads, with twenty meter high concrete walls being erected on the bridges and around the edges of the island, whilst LCPD and NOOSE units protect all of the bridges and the city interior from undead attack. It doesn't work.

* On ''FanFic/CoreLine'' we have the city of Los Angeles, California, which in the aftermath of the disaster that created the titular setting has become an Expy of ComicBook/JudgeDredd's Mega-City One (only with a lot less cynicism).

** The Imperium has several Citadel ''Planets'' ("Fortress Worlds"): One of them is [[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cadia Cadia]], which is located near the only stable passage to the [[NegativeSpaceWedgie Eye of Terror]] from which the LegionsOfHell regularly emerge. Nearly three quarters of the population serve in the military, ChildSoldiers are taught to use a gun before they learn to read, and is protected by its own fleet of spaceships. This being 40K, it ''still'' wasn't enough to prevent the invading forces of Chaos from destroying it at the end of the "Fall of Cadia" campaign.

** Hell, every Imperial space ship in the universe basically fits this description, with a crew size of at the lowest end 20,000 men, they have the population of a small to large city, defenses capable of dealing with both the threats of warp travel and capable of defending against the ridiculous firepower of anything in the same category with it for at least a short amount of time.
*** Special mention should also go to the Eldar Craftworld Ulthwe, which is a massive world ship with a population in the billions trapped orbiting the Eye of Terror. (the same warp storm which is so dangerous it requires a planet like Cadia to act as a BeefGate for the rest of real space.

* Apophis Consortium's ''Obsidian: Age of Judgement'', has The Zone. The Zone is a massive fortified cityscape 1,280 stories high and 22 miles long and the last major habitat for humanity in North America after a massive [[TheLegionsOfHell demonic invasion]]. The Zone isn't just big, almost every metre of it is studded in artillery cannons that fire thermobaric shells and the Zone can unleash hordes of battle vehicles and bionic soldiers to counter-attack anything Hell can throw, including mountain-sized demons.
* ''WarhammerFantasy'': Most important cities have walls and other systems of defense due to the ForeverWar nature of the setting. Praag in particular had walls tall enough to serve as a WorfEffect of sorts by serving as a reference point for Kholek Sun-Eater's size (a dragon-ogre big enough to look ''over'' the walls.

** In almost all cases where the cities defenses failed it's major weak point was the cities harbor and the walls facing towards the sea, which were by far the shortest and easily overrun.

* ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'': The city underneath the Traveler, which has walls and plenty of defenses against encroaching invaders who seek to break in.

* In Classical Greece, polises like Corinth and Megara, built huge walls, called "Long Walls" that connected them to other cities. The most famous of these was Athen's, with connected Athens to its {{PortTown}}s of Piraeus and Phalerum during the Peloponnesian and Corinthian War to withstand the sieges. During the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, the walls withstood Spartan assault but allowed for a plague one of the trading ships picked up to spread through the city. One of the peace conditions imposed on the Athenians at the end of the war called for the demolition of the Long Walls.

* While Washington D.C. may have been the fortress city of the Civil War, Nearby UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}} has probably the best claim to the Fortress City of the United States. The U.S. National Anthem is about the Battle of Baltimore in the UsefulNotes/WarOf1812, and how the flag over Fort [=McHenry=] was still defiantly waving over the fort the morning following a night of shelling by British warships. During the Civil War, the forts' cannons were actually turned on the city, which had southern sympathies, to which the citizens of Baltimore got the message and never tried anything against the Union.

* While Washington D.C. may have been the fortress city of the Civil War, Nearby UsefulNote/{{Baltimore}} has probably the best claim to the Fortress City of the United States. The U.S. National Anthem is about the Battle of Baltimore in the UsefulNotes/WarOf1812, and how the flag over Fort [=McHenry=] was still defiantly waving over the fort the morning following a night of shelling by British warships. During the Civil War, the forts' cannons were actually turned on the city, which had southern sympathies, to which the citizens of Baltimore got the message and never tried anything against the Union.

* The Human Village in ''VideoGame/TouhouProject'' is basically the humans' stronghold in Gensokyo, and houses enough youkai exterminators to make it ill-advised for rogue youkai to even so much as bother any human in the village. And just in case things start going bad, there is a second line of defense in the village's appointed protector, Keine Kamishirasawa, who can outright temporarily hide the entire village's existence (and does so on ''Imperishable Night'').

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* The ''ComicBook/XWingSeries'' establishes that Coruscant, the galaxy's capital in ''Franchise/StarWars'', is quite thoroughly defended, with a powerful defense fleet and a double-layered planetary deflector shield grid. A major part of ''Wedge's Gamble'' is the Rogues' effort to disable the shields long enough for the New Republic to invade.

* In Classical Greece, polises like Corinth and Megara, built huge walls, called "Long Walls" that connected them to other cities. The most famous of these was Athen's, with connected Athens to its {{PortTown}}s of Piraeus and Phalerum during the Peloponnesian and Corinthian War to withstand the sieges. During the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, the walls withstood Spartan assault but allowed for a plague one of the trading ships picked up to spread through the city.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''L

* While Washington D.C. may have been the fortress city of the civil war, Nearby [[UsefulNote/Baltimore]] has probably the best claim to the Fortress City of the United States. The U.S. National Anthem is about the Battle of Baltimore in the [[UsefulNotes/WarOf1812]], and how the flag over Fort McHenry was still, defiantly waving over the fort the morning following a night of shelling by British War Ships. During the civil war, the forts cannons were actually turned on the city, which had southern sympathies, to which the citizens of Baltimore got the message and never tried anything against the Union.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has both Stormwind and Orgrimmar, both of which are walled up and heavily fortified. (Not that it did much good for either one when it came to stopping [[EldritchAbomination Deathwing]]...)

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' has many fortified cities. Most notable is Tar Valon, which is triply defended by being built on an island in the middle of a large river, surrounded by [[AWizardDidIt Power-wrought]] walls, and home to the White Tower of the Aes Sedai WitchSpecies and their SuperSoldier MindlinkMates. It's well known to have ''never'' been successfully besieged -- though this is an InternalRetcon quite insistently maintained by the Aes Sedai, who prefer that people not know that an army once made it as far as the Tower grounds. However, by the time a siege actually becomes relevant in the latter few books, the advent of [[ThinkingUpPortals traveling]] has become so widespread that its walls are useless.

* King's Landing in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' has large strong walls, a defensive fleet based on its harbor, and is utterly huge. There's also a massive castle, the Red Keep, situated at an elevated point in the city's center.
** Lannisport is in much the same boat, though slightly smaller; Casterly Rock, the city's citadel, is basically a hollowed-out mountain.

* The old historic city of UsefulNotes/{{Seoul}} was surrounded by castle walls, and four of the main gates were fortified. However these walls didn't protect the city from falling under the battle hardened troops of Japan during the Japanese invasions of Korea through 1592 to 98. The walls failed the [[UsefulNotes/{{SouthKorea}} Kingdom of Joseon]] yet again after decades later the Manchu invasions of Korea happened.
** After these failures, King Jeongjo constructed the Suwon Fortress, a fortified city that used a lot of techniques deemed inovative at that time. The city was never invaded, however.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has several Citadel ''Planets'' ("Fortress Worlds"): One of them is [[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cadia Cadia]], which is located near the only stable passage to the [[NegativeSpaceWedgie Eye of Terror]] from which the LegionsOfHell regularly emerge. Nearly three quarters of the population serve in the military, ChildSoldiers are taught to use a gun before they learn to read, and is protected by its own fleet of spaceships. This being 40K, it ''still'' wasn't enough to prevent the invading forces of Chaos from destroying it at the end of the "Fall of Cadia" campaign.

** Hell, every Imperial space ship in the universe basically fits this description, with a crew size of at the lowest end 20,000 men, they have the population of a small to large city, defenses capable of dealing with both the threats of warp travel and capable of defending against the ridiculous firepower of anything in the same category with it for atleast a short amount of time.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has several Citadel ''Planets'' ("Fortress Worlds"): One of them is [[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cadia Cadia]], which is located near the only stable passage to the [[NegativeSpaceWedgie Eye of Terror]] from which the LegionsOfHell regularly emerge. Nearly three quarters of the population serve in the military, ChildSoldiers are taught to use a gun before they learn to read, and is protected by its own fleet of spaceships. This being 40K, it ''still'' wasn't enough to prevent the invading forces of Chaos from currently having a stranglehold on it.