Cannes - Tour du Masque

Cannes was a fishing village up to the mid 19th century, when it was "found" by french and foreign aristocrats who built holidays homes here.

In early 1870 the "Croisette" was built, still considered the "meeting place of the rich and beautiful".

Since then Cannes has stretched itself all along the coast.

More than three million tourists visit Cannes per year. There are about 130 hotels with some 8000 rooms, three casinos, restaurants, cafes, clubs, discos....

In medieval times, there were not only fishermen here, but as well monks, as Cannes belonged to the Abbaye de Lérins.

Over centuries Cannes was exposed to raids by pirates. Around 1530, Cannes detached from the monks who had controlled the city for hundreds of years and became independent.

The monks had built a fortified monastery at the top of the hill of Suquet which dominates the bay from the 11th century on. Conventual building, it is built on a quadrangular plan, like that of a castle with a keep, and it incorporates in its defensive enclosure a main building and a chapel. In the middle of the central courtyard stands a square tower whose height could allow the lookout.

In 1635 the Lerin islands were captured by the Spanish. Two years later, the islands was retaken by the French. Later Vauban fortified the island of Sainte-Marguerite with an efficient defense system. The fort became a state prison used by all regimes. One of the prisoners kept here was the "Man in the Iron Mask", a (still) unidentified man who was arrested in 1669 and subsequently held in a number of French prisons. He spent 11 years on St. Marguerite Island and died 1703 in the Bastille in Paris.

According to local legend, the Man in the Iron Mask escaped from Sainte-Marguerite island and spent the last years of his life in this 12th-century tower, but that´s just a legend.