FIG. 151. PLAN AND SECTION OF THE “TOUR DU CHEVALIER,” CANNES.
to receive the top of the ladder is visible in the Tour du Chevalier, beneath the entrance door. The latter has a straight lintel recessed within a plain round arched opening. From the first floor level a stone stair corbelled out from the interior of the wall and running round the sides of the apartments led to the upper floors, which were originally formed of timber, although now vaulted with flat arches of more recent construction, probably of the sixteenth century. The roof was no doubt flat and was provided with a crenellated parapet, projected on corbels with machicolations between them. This parapet was only destroyed some years ago, when the tower was struck by lightning. The openings for light are small square apertures in the masonry without splay or ornament. They have no internal bay, but are mere oblong holes passing through the walls. These holes might almost be supposed to have been used for projecting beams through, on which to rest wooden hoardings for defence, but there are no doors for access to such works. According to the Abbé Allier, in his History of the “Iles de Lérins,” this tower was begun in 1073 by the Abbé Aldebert II., partly on Roman substructures. The parapet was, however, not completed till 1395 by the Abbé Jean de Thornafort. This tower and the other similar towers of this district (of which more hereafter) occupied in their design an intermediate position between the keeps of the North, such as that of Montmajour, and the lofty towers of the Italian cities, of which those of Sienna and Verona are well known examples. The courtyard of the castle was enclosed with walls fortified with towers, of which some portions still remain, but the enceinte has been greatly altered in later times, and converted into bastions with platforms for guns, and parapets loopholed for musketry. This was probably done during the Spanish wars of the sixteenth century. Within the walls there were no doubt buildings for the residence of the Chevalier and the garrison, the tower being only used for watching, and as a keep or last resort in case of siege. Of the original structures the only one besides the tower now remaining is the church of St Anne, which, according to the Abbé Allier, was erected towards the end of the twelfth century. This church forms an example of the simple style of Cistertian architecture, which, as already remarked, was largely adopted in Provence—especially, as we shall see, in many of the smaller churches. In these we find the Cistertian plainness combined with the plan of a simple nave without aisles, terminated with an apse at the east end.
The Church of St Anne ([Fig. 152]), although erected in connection with the castle, also served originally as the Town Church. It is of the same simple type as Thoronet, but on a much smaller scale. The plan ([Fig. 153]) consists of one long nave, 87 feet in length by 20 feet wide, with a round apse at the east end; and it has no aisles
FIG. 152. CHURCH OF ST ANNE.
or transept. The walls are perfectly plain, both internally and externally, and the roof is constructed with a pointed vault, strengthened with square transverse ribs, which spring from simple pilasters in the wall. The cornice between the wall head and the arch consists of the same plain ovalo moulding as at Thoronet, and the part of it forming the impost of the transverse ribs is “cut off” at the sides, like the impost of the cloister arches at that abbey. Some of these imposts, adjoining the central door, have a few rude and scarcely intelligible carvings on them—apparently
FIG. 153. PLAN OF ST ANNE.