Convention Battery

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Convention Battery occupies the eastern tip of the Île Sainte-Marguerite, in the bay of Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes). The site was fortified as early as the Spanish occupation, prior to 1637, with a small square fort in the form of a redoubt equipped with a battery of cannons. During the wars of the French Revolution and the First Empire, the work, then occupied by a garrison, took the name of Batterie de la Convention. The present guardhouse, decorated with brick crenellations and bretèches following a standard 1846 model, was built in 1862; the works of the battery proper date from the third quarter of the 19th century (1868). After the annexation of the County of Nice by France in 1860, the battery lost its strategic importance: its decommissioning was proposed in 1876 and took effect in 1889. During the Second World War, the German occupying troops built two casemates there armed with 75 mm guns. The ensemble has been registered as a historic monument since 6 June 1933; the site of the Île Sainte-Marguerite has moreover been a protected (classé) site since 1930. The building is owned by the State and assigned to the Ministry of Defence.