The Architecture of Provence and the RivieraMacGibbon, David
History
The Architecture of Provence and the Riviera
MacGibbon, David
Architecture -- France -- Provence; Architecture -- France -- Riviera
The main road, from the point where the branch to St Césaire leaves it,
continues westwards and descends with many wide and bold sweeps till it
reaches the Siagne, which it crosses at Les Veyans, and again ascends
the steep and wooded valley on the opposite side. Soon the rugged ruins
of the castle of Tournon (Fig. 198) are seen frowning over the pass from
their rocky eminence, which can only be reached after a hard climb
through the thick wood and thorny heath which clothe the hillside. But
that trouble is rewarded by the discovery of a rude and remarkable
edifice. This consists of a Keep of semi-circular form built on the
edge of a precipice which forms the diameter of the circle, and has
apparently been considered a sufficient defence of the structure on that
side. A semi-circular lofty wall of enceinte surrounds the keep on the
side next the hill. The entrance gateway was doubtless in this wall
where there is now a ruinous gap. The building is reduced to bare and
shattered walls, so that its interior arrangements cannot be determined,
but it must have been a very singular and unique structure.
[Illustration: FIG. 199. TOWN AND CASTLE OF CALLIAN.]
Near the highest point of the road, in continuing westwards, the village
of La Colle-Noire stands across the way, and in olden times stopped all
passage by means of gates in its walls. Beyond this, an open country
rich in vines and olives is traversed, from which another long ascent
leads to the town of Montauroux, standing on a promontory, crowned with
the ruins of the Fort St Barthélemy, destroyed in 1592. A wide curve of
the road, round a fine amphitheatre of terraced lands, leads from
Montauroux to Callian, another little town perched on the hillside, and
commanded by the immense ruins of an old castle (Fig. 199), which like
all the others in the province, was sacked in 1792, and of which only
the shattered shell remains. It would appear from the mullioned windows
and round tower, to have been built in the fifteenth century, and has
evidently been altered in the seventeenth, by the insertion of numerous
large oblong openings. In the sixteenth century this pile was inhabited
by Jean de Grasse.
[Illustration: FIG. 200. LE BAR, S. DOORWAY OF CHURCH.]
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