From an early time Grasse was an industrious and commercial town. It thus became rich, and its wealth brought upon it frequent attacks from the Saracens while they had their headquarters at the Great Fraxinet. Early in the twelfth century the inhabitants followed the example of the Italian towns with which they had commerce by constituting themselves a free republic. Their consuls formed treaties with Pisa and Genoa, and unfortunately the town got mixed up with Italian politics and the disputes of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. This led to the usual unhappy result of dividing the people into violent factions, and enabled Raymond Béranger, Count of Provence, in 1226, under pretext of aiding the Guelph party, to render himself master of the town. In the sixteenth century Grasse shared the unhappy fate of the rest of this part of France, when Francis I. found himself unable to defend it against Charles V., and therefore laid the whole country waste. The town also suffered greatly during the religious wars of the seventeenth century. [Illustration: FIG. 184. GRASSE.] [Illustration: FIG. 185. PLAN OF GRASSE CATHEDRAL.] [Illustration: FIG. 186. GRASSE CATHEDRAL, WEST END.] The most important building in Grasse is the cathedral. It is the first church we have seen, on our way eastwards, which represents a type essentially different from that of Provence, and markedly akin to the architecture of Italy--a characteristic which we shall find more and more strongly developed in our progress along the Riviera. The plan (Fig. 185), like that of most of the churches of Italy, consists of a central nave and side aisles, all originally terminated with eastern apses, the [Illustration: FIG. 187. GRASSE CATHEDRAL (_Campanile at N.E. angle_).] existing choir, which is square, being a late addition. The character of the exterior is essentially Italian (Fig. 186), being similar in its forms and ornament to the churches of Pisa and Genoa, with which towns, as above-mentioned, Grasse had commercial relations. The arcaded ornament at the eaves is very Lombardic, and the doorways of the west front and north side (Fig. 187) are of the ordinary Italian design of the thirteenth century, with low pitched roof. The tall and simple square campanile is also Italian in conception. The design of the interior (Fig. 188) is somewhat remarkable, the massive circular piers with their cushion caps having more of the character of a Northern than of a Southern edifice. They remind one, however, of those of Carcassonne. The solid square groins of the vault, springing from very simple corbels, are of a usual Provençal form--such, for instance, as those of Fréjus Cathedral. Close to the cathedral stands one of the square towers (Fig. 189), similar to that of the Mont du Chevalier at Cannes, which we have noticed as being common in the towns of this [Illustration: FIG. 188. GRASSE CATHEDRAL.] [Illustration: FIG. 189. KEEP TOWER, GRASSE.]