Château d'Èze

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château d'Èze is a former fortress whose remains overlook the perched village of Èze, in the Alpes-Maritimes, at an altitude of 429 metres. The site has been occupied since the Iron Age, around 220 BC, but the castle itself was built in the second half of the 12th century by the Èze family. Placed under the authority of the Counts of Savoy and then of Provence, the fortress was entrusted to castellans appointed annually and responsible for guarding it. In 1706, during the War of the Spanish Succession, Louis XIV ordered its destruction to prevent it from hindering French communications between Villefranche and Monaco. The remains, made up of walls in cyclopean masonry, attracted the first tourists climbing up to the village as early as the Belle Époque. After the Second World War, the mayor André Gianton had an exotic garden laid out on the ruins, with the help of Jean Gastaud, planted with cacti, agaves and aloes that benefit from the natural shelter against the north winds. The site, redeveloped in 2004 with themed trails and earthen sculptures by Jean-Philippe Richard, now offers a panorama over the Côte d'Azur.