Tour Royale, Toulon

I decided to visit Toulon yesterday evening to get a break away from the race track at Paul Ricard.  I headed there principally to see the Tall Ships that were resident in the city this month but with no where to park I headed out to the Tour Royale overlooking the entrance of Toulon Harbour.

The Tour Royale (also known as La Grosse Tour) is a fort built in the 16th century to protect the entrance of the Petit Rade, the naval port of Toulon. It was the first fortification of the harbor, built 22 years after Provence became a part of France.  The fort was commissioned in 1513 by King Louis XII at the request of the bishop of Toulon and of the Senechal of Provence. It was placed on the cap de la Manegue, at the end of the pointe de la Mitre, where it could fire at any ships coming into the Rade.

After a long and bloody history, Tour Royale became a museum in 2004, and in 2006, it was transferred from the Ministry of Defense to the city of Toulon. and opened to the public. A coastal path from the fort connects it to the beaches of Mourillon.

As of September 2010 the Tour Royale is open to the public from July 1 until October 31, on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, from 900 until 1200 and from 1400 until 1800.

For more on the history of the Tour Royale CLICK HERE

All images taken on Fujifilm Finepix X100

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY CLICKING THE GOOGLE ADVERTS

It doesn't cost you anything to click on an advert but we get a small fee for every click thru from Google and this helps support this blog - thank you for helping

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION

If you like what you see on this blog please visit our Facebook page and click 'like'