The Chateau d’If, within the south of France off the port of Marseille, was made well-known by the Depend of Monte Cristo novel, partly set right here. I visited not too long ago and share the legendary chateau’s intriguing historical past, together with sensible visiting particulars.
Approaching this forbidding fortress from the ocean – there isn’t any different option to strategy it – you’ll be able to nearly relive the arrival of Edmond Dantès, the hero of the beloved work of fiction Depend of Monte Cristo, who was jailed right here after an unjust accusation.
As his boat neared the formidable towers, his anguish was such that he thought-about throwing himself overboard.
“Dantes rose and seemed ahead, when he noticed rise inside 100 yards of him the black and frowning rock on which stands the Chateau d’If. This gloomy fortress, which has for greater than 300 years furnished meals for thus many wild legends, appeared to Dantes like a scaffold to a malefactor.”
—French Author Alexandre Dumas
Even with the brilliant sunshine that habitually bathes the harbor of Marseille, the Chateau d’If appears forbidding, its large stone partitions anchored by watchtowers and dungeons, all sitting on a mattress of rock that defies escape, particularly for an unequipped, terrified prisoner.
One might nearly trudge up the steps subsequent to an imaginary Dantès, sharing his torment as he’s pushed by way of an entrance right into a courtyard he’ll solely glimpse for a short time – his destiny is to be solitary, with little greater than a dish and a few straw.
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The Chateau d’If lives in our creativeness, whether or not we’re French or not.
Many individuals have learn the Depend of Monte Cristo, or seen one of many movies coping with the story of affection, captivity and revenge. And should you haven’t, you’ll wish to after visiting right here.
A fortress born from worry
The fortress was constructed between 1529 and 1531 on the orders of the king of France, Francis I, or François I: he needed to guard the strategic metropolis of Marseille from sea invasions, shield the royal flotilla primarily based at Marseille, and, frankly, keep watch over Marseille herself, solely not too long ago included into France.
Steps resulting in into the fortress, Marseille’s personal Alcatraz, the formidable jail off the coast of San Francisco
The comparatively ethereal courtyard is not something just like the windowless dungeons poor prisoners have been confined to
The cell of Edmond Dantes, the place dwelling circumstances weren’t the identical as these of rich prisonersUnderneath the Ancien Regime, France’s political system earlier than the Revolution, exiling prisoners to fortresses, typically constructed on islands, was the norm.
That symbolism of isolation continued by way of the 2 exiles of Napoleon Bonaparte. To maintain him away, he too was despatched to island prisons, first to Elba, and at last to St Helena.
As for Dantès, aware of the bay of Marseille, he know simply how tantalizingly shut he was to the town, shut sufficient to swim, had he been in a position to attain the ocean.
A great jail, the coast of Marseille within the distance, and Notre-Dame de la Garde on the hillThe Chateau d’If was completely positioned for defence, with Marseille on one aspect and the open Mediterranean, one of many busiest sea routes, on the opposite.
Its potential use as a jail escaped nobody and because it hadn’t been known as upon for defence, it turned a jail, largely for political prisoners. At one level, after Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes which had given everybody spiritual freedom, some 3500 Huguenots (French Protestants) have been held right here in transit earlier than being chained to “les galères”, or the galleys, the place they might go to die.
The fort can be evaluated by Vauban, Louis XIV’s genial army architect, and located wanting, so he made a couple of modifications – decrease ramparts, a guardhouse, and a army barracks that carries his title.
As you’re taking a tour of the island you may come across the Vauban barracks, pictured on the suitableThe fictional Dantès stays the Chateau d’If’s most famend prisoner – however there have been different well-known inmates.
It was additionally dwelling to Jean-Baptiste Chataud, the captain of the Grand-Saint-Antoine, the ship that introduced with it the bubonic plague that killed over 100,000 folks in Marseille and Provence in 1720.
Regardless of deaths on his ship, he had pushed on in the direction of Marseille, the place rich businessmen anxiously awaited the arrival of products from the Orient for resale at a significant honest. Everybody had been responsible of greed and corruption, however one man took the autumn.
One other infamous prisoner was the Depend of Mirabeau, one of many faces of the French Revolution. Like different wealthier patrons, he lived in an upmarket cell with a mattress fairly than straw, a chimney, respectable meals and all the fashionable conveniences (not many on the time, although).
Many left their names behind and the partitions are stuffed with their graffiti – together with the marks of extra modern-day guests who might have taken benefit of an uncrowded day to go away their mark.
You’ll be able to see the faint inscriptions on the plaque on the left and the graffiti on partitions to the suitableThe Château d’If, immortalized by literature
So many books, performs, radio sequence and flicks have been primarily based on the novel – too many to depend.
And it is simple to grasp why. As I re-read the story for the umpteenth time, it’s each bit as compelling as the primary, with Dantès’s fabled escape protecting me on the sting of my seat.
The Chateau d’If is now a historic monument, removed from its earlier function as a state jailMonte Cristo – a real story?
Imagine it or not, the Depend of Monte Cristo might have been primarily based on a real story.
A sure Pierre Picaud, a shoemaker from Nîmes, was about to marry when an evil love rival turned him into the authorities as a traitor (which was a lie, in fact). The shoemaker is arrested and languishes in a infamous jail for seven years, the place he befriends a rich Milanese abbot who wills him his fortune. Then, identical to the novel, the shoemaker units about looking for his revenge.
Proving this as true has been a problem, nonetheless, and most literary specialists suspect Pierre Picaud was none aside from the invention of a criminal offense author on the time. Regardless of – that is a type of locations the place fable and actuality intertwine.
Why the Château d’If?
Alexandre Dumas hadn’t at all times deliberate to set the sooner a part of his story on the Chateau d’If. However having heard his father communicate of it, he dropped by throughout a visit to Marseille and was so taken by its forbidding side that he determined to include it into his novel.
As for the title, it got here to him on one other journey, this time to Tuscany, when he sailed previous a rocky outcrop close to Elba: the small island of Monte Cristo, the place medieval monks had apparently slain a dragon and amassed a treasure, whose rumor unfold amongst pirates and which additionally fueled Dumas’s creativeness. And so are legends perpetrated.
The place life imitates artwork
It’s fairly simple to grasp how, having learn the story, one would possibly wish to rush throughout the bay of Marseille to see the Château d’If in individual. The novel was revealed in 1844 and by 1850, readers have been already clambering into boats to cross to the rocky island and stroll within the footsteps of Edmond Dantès and the Abbé Faria, the story’s two heroes.
To make issues much more “reasonable”, a tunnel was really dug between cells, a bit like life imitating artwork. At the moment, the chateau is a historic monument and issues have to be left as they’re.
Early vacationers flip the chateau right into a vacationer attraction
Promoting posters for the serial novel. Supply: Supply gallica.bnf.fr / BnFNot everyone seems to be satisfied
Including to the thriller that tends to shroud locations like that is the agency perception some folks have about its historic existence.
Asking a couple of guests at random throughout my go to, I did get a couple of raised eyebrows, however one younger couple enthusiastically confirmed that they had learn the guide, believed this a part of it to be true, and now needed to see the “actual factor”. That is the ability of excellent literature.
In case you haven’t learn it but, head for the library or order your personal copy earlier than you go to. (There’s a leatherbound model that may make a beautiful Christmas or birthday reward for somebody!)
Timeless attraction…
The novel first noticed the day in 1844 when it was serialized, or revealed in instalments in standard newspapers, a well-liked type of literature at a time when books have been costly and reserved for the elite. It took the world by storm, was quickly launched as a guide, and have become what might have been the primary worldwide best-seller of all time, translated into greater than 20 languages around the globe.
Dumas turned it right into a play (a two-part play, thoughts you, with the intention to maintain the suspense) and it has since been the topic of greater than 30 films and radio dramas, one of many directed by none aside from Orson Welles.
The guide has misplaced none of its attraction over time.
Visiting the Château d’If
The Château d’If is straightforward to achieve by boat from Marseille’s Outdated Port, the one exception being when boats are canceled as a consequence of tough seas. The fortress is barely 20 minutes away, however the return journey is often twice as lengthy as a result of the boats typically swing by the opposite islands of the Frioul Archipelago to select up guests and residents.
You should buy your tickets for the boat and fortress individually, or purchase a Metropolis Cross, which will get you on the boat totally free, in addition to into the fortress.
From high of St. Christopher’s Tower, greater than 45m excessive, you’ve gotten a sweeping view of all of Marseille, so ensure you climb these steps.
Do discover each nook and cranny, and maintain an eye fixed out on the time so that you don’t miss the final boat should you go to within the afternoon. You can even mix a go to to the Château d’If and the Frioul Islands for some mountaineering or kayaking.
Not like the journey of Edmond Dantès, ours is a straightforward 20-minute trip on a contemporary boat from Marseille’s Vieux PortWho was Alexandre Dumas?
All this discuss concerning the Depend of Monte Cristo will need to have you questioning concerning the creator.
Simply who was Alexandre Dumas, precisely? Let’s have a fast biography.
His father was an excellent army man whose mom was black, a former slave, and the creator would endure from some types of racism all through his life.
He wasn’t notably effectively educated, however had such good handwriting he was employed as a clerk, then as a personal secretary, rising by way of the ranks of Paris society.
He realized his literature within the literary salons of the capital, ultimately touring and turning into concerned in politics earlier than turning into the prolific author we all know of at present.
Not solely did he write the Depend of Monte Cristo, however he’s additionally accountable for The Three Musketeers (and its many sequels, prequels and offshoots). So prolific was he that he might have used the “assist” of assistants to jot down, and can be criticized for this.
As royalties poured in, he turned rich, constructing the Chateau de Monte Cristo, his dream property. Right here, he entertained and partied, with loads of folks benefiting from his legendary generosity, a lot in order that his poor funds would ultimately pressure him to promote it.
Dumas is buried within the Paris Pantheon, together with different well-known French writers.
The Chateau Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas’s dream propertyEarlier than you go…
The Chateau d’If is on the smallest island of the Friouls, however it’s also a part of the Calanques Nationwide Park, which it’s best to go to in case you have the possibility. You’ll be able to spend a pleasing few hours visiting the Calanques on one among these excursions from Marseille.
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