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. an...