FIG. 254. OUTER SOUTH GATEWAY, LA TURBIE.
south ([Fig. 254].)) Passing through this archway, an inner encircling street is entered, from which another picturesque and pointed gateway ([Fig. 255]) gives access to the centre of the town. There is also a third gateway of pointed form, with a long machicolation over it at the eastern entrance ([Fig. 256]), and some further fragments of the olden time are to be seen in the streets ([Fig. 257]). The great trophy of Augustus, from which the place derives its name, was converted in mediæval
FIG. 255. INNER SOUTH GATEWAY, LA TURBIE.
times into a fortress, when the upper part has been rebuilt. The double tier of pointed arcade-ornaments ([Fig. 32]), which formed the support of the parapet, have quite an Italian character. They remind one of the similar ornament on Grasse Cathedral. This tower was blown up by Marshal Villars at the end of the seventeenth century.
FIG. 256. EASTERN GATEWAY, LA TURBIE.
In descending by the steep and well-paved footpath from La Turbie to Monaco, delightful glimpses are obtained from amongst the luxuriant olives and citrons of the latter town on its isolated rock. Most of the towns on the sea-board have a prominent rock for their site, but that on which Monaco is built is the most detached and sea-girt of them all. It is of considerable height, and has perpendicular faces on all sides. On three sides these plunge sheer down into the sea, and on the fourth or northern side of the peninsula the precipitous rock is only joined to the mainland by a narrow strip of low-lying sandy beach. On the inaccessible platform above these precipices stands the ancient town, surrounded with its walls and bastions, and giving shelter and protection to the quiet harbour on its eastern flank. Of all these features we have a commanding prospect as we descend from the heights of the Cornice road, which passes by La Turbie.