Île Sainte-Marguerite (; , ) is the largest of the Lérins Islands, about half a mile offshore from the French Riviera city of Cannes, situated in the Bay of Cannes. The island is approximately in length (east to west) and across (north to south). Sainte Marguerite Island is the closest of the Lérins Islands to Cannes, just 700 metres from the Palm-Beach headland, and the most extensive, covering an area of . It reaches an altitude of only in the north, near the fort.
The island is most famous for its fortress prison, entitled the "" (French: "Fort Royal"), in which the so-called Man in the Iron Mask was held for 11 years (1687–1698) of his 34 years of imprisonment.
The island
The island was known to be occupied in 6 BC by a Celtic-Ligurian population. In 3 AD, it was under Roman occupation, when it was known by the name Lero, on account of an altar or temple having been erected there to honour Lero, a celebrated pirate chief.
In medieval times, during the first centuries of Christianity, the island was named in honour of the martyr Saint Margaret of Antioch by the crusaders, who built a chapel on the island dedicate to her. In the 14th century, probably due to the writings of Raymond Féraud, the island became associated with a fictional Sainte Marguerite, sister to Saint Honoratus, founder of the monastery on the neighboring Île Saint-Honorat. According to legend, Sainte Marguerite led a community of nuns on the island which was named after her. In 1612, ownership of the island passed from the monks of Saint-Honorat to Claude de Lorraine, Duke of Chevreuse. In 1635, the island was captured by the Spanish The Spanish developed a system for collecting rainwater which was purified in four decantation basins, and collected into two tanks set under a well to serve the 800 men stationed on the island. Two years later in 1637, the island was recaptured by the French.
In 1746 the islands were lost to the Austrians and the English for a year; and in WWII first the Italians then the Germans occupied it.
Fort Royal
Structure
In Gallo-Roman times, the site consisted of nothing more than a simple fortified house, and several cistern buildings, which still exist from this time. Rocher Tower was built on the corner of the building in the Middle Ages to protect the island from regular Saracen attacks. In 1617, the Duke de Guise gave Jean de Bellon the task of building a fort intended to block access to Cannes. The fort was constructed between 1624 and 1627. The fort underwent extension in 1635 during the Spanish occupation, including two bastions, and the first barracks buildings.
When the island was recatured by the French in 1637, it building was named the (French: "Fort Royal"). The French strengthened the fortifications considerably, including deepening of the moats, raising the curtain wall, and linking two demi-lunes to the fort via elevated walkways (since disappeared). Guitaut, the French royal governor, also had a "tenaille" built, a low bastion placed in front of the entrance gates to the fort, which bears his name today. At the end of the 17th Century, when the Louis XIV's general commissioner of fortifications (Vauban) personally inspected the fort, he gave instructions to strengthen the square, giving the fort its current appearance. Currently, the pentagonal-shaped fort rises 26 metres above sea level to project over a rocky cliff on the northern coast of the Island, opposite Cape Croisette. It is flanked by four bastions at its weak points, on the land side, and on the coastal side, the structure's stone ramparts are supported by an earth embankment blended into the sheer cliff. Inside the compound, a chapel, several barns (for housing the troops), and artillery (including the powder store surrounded by the walls of the royal bastion to the fort's south, probably to reduce the consequences of any accidental explosion).
Prison
From 1637 onwards, the first cells were fitted out in the governor's château. In 1685, at a time when the accommodated a large garrison, the fort was dedicated definitively and first and foremost to be used as a state prison. In 1687, Governor Saint-Mars, on the orders of Louis XIV, had a parallelepiped stone building constructed inside the compound, inside which several cells were soon fitted out. The also has a smaller detention area, reserved for soldiers.
In 1685, the Fort of Sainte-Marguerite Island was one of the four places of imprisonment for Huguenots, when the Edict of Nantes was revoked by Louis XIV. In 1950, a Huguenot memorial was set up in a former cell to honor six Protestant ministers, Paul Cardel, Pierre de Salve, Gabriel Mathurin, Mathieu de Malzac, Elisée Giraud, and , who were incarcerated in the fort for life, and subsequently in October 1985, to commemorate the tricentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, President François Mitterrand of France announced a formal apology to the descendants of Huguenots around the world.
Until 1841, there were only 37 or 38 male prisoners on the island of Sainte Marguerite. However, in 1841, France's Ministry of War commissioned a report on the feasibility of the fort acting as a "prison likely to receive political detainees or prisoners of war" from Algeria. The report (26 April 1841) from the president of the Fortifications Committee, V. Dode, confirmed its suitability, considering it possible to house 400 prisoners. Four days later, a ministerial decree assigned the prison fort for "the detention of Arab prisoners transported from Algeria to France". The prisoners were not "judicial convicts", but specified as political prisoners or prisoners of war, therefore the length of incarceration was rarely mentioned, instead using phrasing like: "men whom politics orders to remove from Algeria for a certain time" or "detained until further notice ... The complete pacification of their country could contribute to their enlargement".
This included prisoners from the Battle of the Smala. The first group, transported on the barge La Provençale which left on 22 June 1843, arrived on 26 June 1843, carrying an estimate 290 prisoners. The second group arrived on 9 August 1843 carrying 186 prisoners. Women and men were separated. In September 1843, the fort housed 520 people (not all of whom belonged to the former smala of Abd el-Kader) and Doctor Bosio estimated that each individual had 8 cubic meters of air, "a quantity recognized as insufficient even for soldiers, all the more so for prisoners who, in relation to the air, must be treated as sick, at the rate of 16 cubic meters". The Ministry estimated that the fort housed 687 prisoners in 1847, however, the actual numbers recorded were 547, due to deaths and unreported releases. A cemetery was built to bury those who died on the island. The incarceration of these prisoners ended in 1856.
In 1859, after the Battle of Montebello, 600 Austrian prisoners were detained there.
Between 1817 and 1820, two hundred mamluks from Egypt are said to have been interned there.
The fort ceased operating as a prison during the 20th century. Some noted prisoners accommodated during its operation as a prison included: –
Inmate Arrival Departure Details Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri – – An Algerian rebel leader. François Achille Bazaine – 9/10 August 1874(escaped) The only successful escapee from the island.Paul Cardel 18 April 1689 23 May 1694(died in captivity) A pastor in Rouen, he returned from Holland to France in 1688. On March 2nd, 1689, he was arrested at the bedside of a patient in Paris. He was one of the noted six Huguenots imprisoned for life. He was sent to Sainte-Marguerite Island on 18 April 1689, where he died on 23 May 1694, driven mad. 16 August 1693 Unknown(died in captivity) A pastor in Sedan, Montpellier, Nîmes, then Plymouth for 5 years. He returned to France in 1691 and held meetings, notably in Saint-Quentin, and Château-Thierry. He was arrested after 7 months and then deported with Elisée Giraud. He was one of the noted six Huguenots imprisoned for life. Elisée Giraud 16 August 1693 – He travelled from England, to Holland, then to Paris, where he is imprisoned for two years in Vincennes. On 16 August 1693, he was transferred to Sainte-Marguerite Island. He was one of the noted six Huguenots imprisoned for life. Marquis Jouffroy d’Abbans – – Inventor of the steamboat.Mathieu de Malzac 1692 15 February 1725(died in captivity)A pastor at La Bastide (Bas-Languedoc), then in Rotterdam in 1686. From 1689, he exercised his ministry between Paris and Lyon. He was arrested in 1692, and imprisoned on Sainte-Marguerite Island. He was one of the noted six Huguenots imprisoned for life. Pontchartrain, minister of Louis XIV, asked that he be treated with humanity, earning the prisoner the exceptional privilege of a 2-hour walk. He died in prison on 15 February 1725. Gabriel Mathurin 18 April 1690 1715 A pastor in Arnhem (Holland) who was arrested in Paris on 18 April 1690 (aged 50). He was one of the noted six Huguenots imprisoned for life. He was imprisoned in Sainte-Marguerite and released in 1715. Pierre de Salve(Lord of Bruneton) 15 January 1690 – A pastor at the Walloon Church of Arenberg who left for Paris on "important business". He was arrested in Paris on 10 January 1690. He was one of the noted six Huguenots imprisoned for life. He was transferred to Sainte-Marguerite Island on 15 January 1690. His sermon included "It is for me to live and to die for Christ". Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Suard 1751 1753 He would eventually become the eternal secretary of the French Academy. Unknown(Man in the Iron Mask) 1687 1698 A mysterious prisoner whose identity remains unknown.
20th-century adaptations
In 1862, Rocher Tower was raised to accommodate a semaphore to send telegraphs. During the occupation by German troops during the Second World War, a surveillance station was established on one of the fort's triangular promontories.
Museum
As well as accommodating a youth hostel, old part of the , the Roman and medieval cisterns, houses an archaeology museum exploring land and sea (Museum Reference No: 0602902; Identification Number: M0873) This official was called the Museum of the Sea (French: "Musée de la Mer"), but changed its name from 2020 onwards to the (French: "Musée du Masque de fer et du Fort Royal") The museum is laid out around the former prison with the cell in which the Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned, the Roman cisterns of the old castle and, upstairs, its collection of objects from Roman and Saracen shipwrecks, from the islands of Tradelière (French: Tradelière) and Batéguier, as well as Roman frescoes. The museum also presents explicative scale models and works of contemporary art. The museum's temporary exhibitions take place in summer on the vast terrace overlooking the sea:-
Year Name Significance 2005 "Cannes, White Lights” Photographs Olivier Mériel 2006 "Cannes, Vibrato” Photographs by Gilles Leimdorfer 2007 "The Royal Fort of Sainte-Marguerite Island in the 17th century" Part of the tercentenary of the death of Vauban 2009 "Bellini, Colors of Water” 2010 "Ella Maillart, A Life of Travels” Collaborating with the Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne.
Visitors are also able to view a number of former prison cells (including that occupied by the Man in the Iron Mask) and a Roman cistern room. The attendance statistics for the museum have been:
Year Free Entry Paid Entry Total 2001 20 657 37 752 58 409 2002 15 937 23 214 39 151 2003 19 945 15 684 35 629 2004 17 833 15 450 33 283 2005 28 622 40 429 69 051 2006 34 022 42 511 76 533 2007 36 301 50 334 86 635 2008 39 239 47 942 87 181 2009 35 821 48 638 84 459 2010 37 904 44 377 82 281 2011 35 752 47 064 82 816 2012 36 718 43 317 80 035 2013 35 981 44 519 80 500 2014 38 898 47 990 86 888 2015 37 823 45 059 82 882 2016 35 794 41 654 77 448 2017 34 837 45 690 80 527 2018 41,397 33,508 74,905 2019 43,900 34,493 78,393 2020 42,627 17,549 42,176 2021 30,399 22,030 52,429