Lascaris Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Lascaris Castle is a ruined fortified castle overlooking the town of Tende, in the upper Roya valley (Alpes-Maritimes). Built in the 14th century, it was one of the residences of the Lascaris-Ventimiglia family, counts of Tende; local tradition holds that Beatrice Lascaris lived there, and a street in the village now bears her name. The castle was destroyed in 1692, during the War of the League of Augsburg, in the course of offensives by the troops of Louis XIV in the County of Nice, then a possession of the House of Savoy. In the 19th century, its former courtyard and outbuildings were converted into the municipal cemetery, which notably contains the grave of Clarence Bicknell, one of the discoverers of the rock engravings of the Vallée des Merveilles. Today only remnants of walls and towers survive, freely accessible from the village. The site, at an altitude of about 850 metres, offers a viewpoint over the lauze stone roofs characteristic of the Roya valley and over the Marguareis massif.