William of Provence had been aided by a Grimaldi from Genoa; he made
his prisoners build the walls of Nice and cultivate the soil. To this
day a quarter of Nice bears the name of _lou canton dei sarraïs_,
for it was here that these people were interned. Grimaldi, for his
services, was granted lands in the Chaine des Maures, and the Golf de
Grimaud and the town of Grimaud take their name from him. The Grimaldi
family comes first into notice covered with honour, as liberators of
the Christian from plunderers and pirates. The Grimaldi of to-day at
Monaco are known as living on the proceeds of the gaming tables of
Monte Carlo, the plunderers of Christendom.
Le Grand Fraxinet itself may be visited, but there remain few traces of
the Saracen stronghold; some substructures and a cistern are all. It
has been supposed and asserted that the natives of the town, in their
cast of feature, in their dark eyes and hair, in the pose of their
bodies, still proclaim their Moorish descent. No one who has been in
Tunis or Algiers will corroborate this. In fact, the inhabitants are
indistinguishable from other Provençals.
Cogolin and Grimaud are two little towns living upon, and smelling of,
cork, at a very little distance apart. The Castle of Cogolin has been
wholly destroyed, save for a bell tower. That of Grimaud is in better
condition, but is a ruin. The place was taken from the Grimaldis in
1378 by Louis I. of Anjou and Provence, as the Grimaldi of that time
had sided in the war of succession with Charles of Durazzo, and he gave
it to Christopher Adorno. It passed from one to another, and was raised
into a marquisate in 1627; but the castle was dismantled in virtue of a
decree in 1655.
The town is curious, built on a conical hill dominated by the castle.
The streets are narrow. The church is rude, Early Romanesque, and very
curious.
Undoubtedly the sea originally ran up to Cogolin and Grimaud. Now all
the basin out of which they rise is a flat alluvial plain intersected
by dykes, and growing, near La Foux, splendid umbrella pines.
S. Tropez, charming little town as it is, the best centre for
excursions in the Chain of the Maures, is nevertheless not a place
that can ever become a winter residence, as it looks to the north and
is lashed by the terrible Mistral. But it has this advantage denied to
the other towns on the coast, that, having the sun at the back, one
looks from it upon the sea in all its intensity of colour without being
dazzled.
S. Tropez has been supposed to occupy the site of a Phœnician-Greek
town, Heraclea Caccabaria, but this is improbable. This place was
almost certainly in the sweet sun-bathed Bay of Cavalaire. There were,
indeed, two ancient towns on the Gulf, Alcone and Athenopolis; and
certainly Grimaud was a town in Roman times, for there are remains of
the aqueduct that supplied it with water.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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