I have made it Toulon. I am going to check into my hotel and then set off to see a few sites.
HOTEL BEST WESTERN LA CORNICHE
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; commissioned by King
Louis XII and constructed in 1513 by the Italian engineer Gio Anton della Porta.
[1]
Because of the width of the harbor entrance,
Cardinal Richelieu had another battery, Fort Ballaguier, constructed opposite the Tour Royale in 1634.
In 1700 the French military engineer
Vauban made the fort one of the strong points of his extensive syystem of fortifications of the Port. He recommended adding another level of cannons, and a new battery at the foot of the tower, and lowering the hills around to give the gunners a clearer view of approaching enemy ships.
[2]
The Tour was equipped with forty cannon, but Vauban's other improvements were not carried out. Nonetheless, in 1707, during the
War of the Spanish Succession, the Tour helped Toulon to successfully resist a combined attack and siege by a British-Dutch fleet and the army of
Eugene of Savoy.
The Tour Royale is located at thesouthernmost point on the east side of the harbor entrance, near the base of the long jetty that now closes the harbor.
After the 18th century, the tower was largely used as a prison.
During the
Franco-German War of 1870, the gold reserves of France were secretly stored inside the fort.
The Tour Royale is still a military installation and is closed to the public, but the city of Toulon is constructing a park around the fort, and connecting it to the coastal path along the harbor and coastline.
Toulon Cathedral (
Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Seds de Toulon or
Notre-Dame-de-la-Sède de Toulon; also known as
Sainte-Marie-Majeure) is a
Roman Catholic cathedral and a national monument of France located in
Toulon, in the
Var department of
France, begun in the 11th century and finished in the 18th century. From the 5th century onwards it was the seat of the
Bishops of Toulon, and since 1957 has been the seat of the
Bishops of Fréjus-Toulon.
The first cathedral at Toulon existed in the 5th century, but no trace of it remains. The present building was begun in 1096 by Gilbert,
Count of Provence[1], according to tradition in gratitude for his safe return from the
Crusades. The first three travées, or bays of the
nave, remain from the
Romanesque 11th century church, and the present Chapel of
Saint Joseph was originally the
choir apse. The Chapel of Relics was constructed in the 15th century.
In the winter of 1543–1544 the cathedral, the largest building in the city, was
temporarily transformed into a mosque for the 30,000 crew members of the ships of the
Ottoman-Barbary admiral
Hayreddin Barbarossa, at that time an ally of
Francis I of France[2]. The residents of Toulon were temporarily expelled from the city to make room for the Turkish sailors. At the end of the winter, King Francis paid a large bribe to the Turkish admiral to persuade him and his fleet to leave.
[3].
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As the naval port of Toulon was enlarged by
Henri IV and
Louis XIV, and the city became more important, the cathedral was also enlarged. Additions between 1654 and 1659 had the effect of enclosing the original Romanesque building and incorporating the Chapel of Relics.
The
Classical façade was created in 1696–1701, in the reign of Louis XIV. Angels on the
tympanum of the massive porch, supported on
Corinthian columns, hold the arms of Toulon. The façade was badly damaged in the
French Revolution, but was restored to its original appearance in 1816. It also displays a memorial plaque from 1239, dedicated to Gilbert of Baux, who died in 1239, and to Gaufridet of Trets and Toulon, and his wife Dame Guillaumette, both of whom died in 1234.
The
clock tower was built between 1737 and 1740, the same time as the monumental gate of the Toulon Arsenal. It is 36 meters high, and three meters thick at the base.
On top of the tower is an iron
campanile, where a bell has kept time in Toulon since 1524. The original bells were taken and melted down during the French Revolution. In 1806 and 1807 they were replaced by four new bells
[4].
Stade Mayol is a
multi-purpose stadium in
Toulon,
France. It is currently used mostly for
rugby union matches and is the home stadium of
RC Toulonnais. The stadium is able to hold 13,700 people. It is one of the few French stadiums to be embedded in the city and surrounded by high buildings. It was built at the foot of the Mont Faron, the hill on which Toulon is partly built, and overlooks the Toulon military harbour (
La Rade) on the Mediterranean.
It is named after
Félix Mayol, a very popular concert hall singer from Toulon who had succeeded in Paris in the early 20. century. A true-blue city boy, he offered to buy a piece of land for the club on which the stadium would be built. And so he did. He gave his personal money and gave up the rights on some of his songs to raise the rest. The least that could be done was to give the place the name of its generous patron.
It was inaugurated on March 28, 1920 by the mayor of Toulon and Félix Mayol himself. A cross-country race was organised, as well as a football match between Stade Raphaëlois from
Saint-Raphaël and the RC Toulon football team (4-0) and a rugby match between RCT and TOEC from Toulouse (3-3).
All Blacks and
Wallaby tourists played matches there against regional South-East selections.
The atmosphere is famous for a specific chant called
Pilou pilou, created at the end of the 1940s by a club player, Marcel Bodrero, which describes the Toulon players as terrible primitive warriors coming down from the mountain towards the sea (exactly what Toulon's topography is). A cheerleader leads the chants and asks fans to answer and repeat the words. It generally comes up when players get on the pitch, then early in the game and also when the team's forwards, the club's historical
forte, start to dominate. The chant may also occasionally be heard after the game. The club president
Mourad Boudjellal famously led the
Pilou pilou after a Toulon home victory over
Racing Métro in
2008 that secured Toulon's promotion to the Top 14.
(Information from Wikipedia.com)
The building encloses an elliptical central space 133 m long by 101 m wide. It is ringed by 34 rows of seats supported by a vaulted construction. It has a capacity of 16,300 spectators and since 1989 has a movable cover and a heating system.
.JPG)
