FIG. 261. FONT, ROQUEBRUNE.
The railway, after leaving Roquebrune, sweeps round the Cap Martin, and enters the bay of Mentone, which is only about four miles off. This town, like all the others on the coast, had its castle on the summit of a promontory which juts out into the sea, and divides the coast into two portions, called the eastern and western bays. The Counts of Ventimiglia and the Genoese had, at different times, possession of the town and castle, but it was for the most part an appanage of Monaco, and followed its fortunes. In 1848 the inhabitants formed themselves into a free Republic, and enjoyed autonomy for thirteen years, after which Mentone became the “chef lieu” of a French Canton. The town was at one time surrounded with walls, which rose straight up from the sea. It thus completely occupied
FIG. 262. ROQUEBRUNE CASTLE.
the narrow strip of land between the shore and the hill on which the castle stood, and barred the way along the coast. The eastern gate of the town, and the “Long Street,” which is also a very narrow one, leading through it, still remain, but a new and wider roadway, which forms part of the Cornice Road, has been constructed along the back of the houses in the eastern bay, and now encloses the harbour on the side next the town. An old square tower at the extreme point of the promontory is one of the few relics of the fortifications of the town. Above the “Long Street” the houses are built in terraces, rising rapidly tier above tier on the hillsides, and approached by long flights of steps and narrow vaulted lanes. In the midst of these stand the churches, buildings of the seventeenth century, of clumsy character. The towers and spires, however, form a picturesque group ([Fig. 263]); and along with the houses, as seen from the harbour, together with the magnificent background of lofty and partly snow-clad mountains which shelter Mentone on the north, they compose a splendid picture.
