The island of Saint-Marguerite is the larger of the two Lérins Islands, rising out of the sea a kilometre south of the Croisette. The piece of land is small but incredibly beautiful. One episode of its history is familiar to everyone: it was here that France's most famous prisoner, the Iron Mask, languished.
The island, three kilometres long and 900 metres wide, was settled by Ligurian pirates in the 6th century BC: it was convenient to control the sea routes. In the II century BC came here the Romans, Pliny the Elder wrote about the Roman city and port on the island. But at the beginning of the 5th century, due to an earthquake, the Lerin Islands partially sank into the sea, the only source of fresh water disappeared, and the Romans left.
In the Middle Ages, the Crusaders erected a chapel of St Margaret of Antioch here. It was probably then that the island got its present name. There is, however, a legend that it was named after another Margaret, the sister of Saint Honoratus, who in 410 settled on a neighbouring island and founded a large monastery there. There is no scientific confirmation of the legend.
In 1612, the owner of the island became the Duc de Chevreuse - he began to build here the Royal Fort. At the end of the 17th century, Fort Royale became a well-protected prison for state criminals. From 1687 to 1698, a man in an iron mask, whose name is still unknown, was imprisoned there.
You can get to the island by boat from the Old Port. There is a tiny village (two dozen fishermen's houses), Fort Rouaille is turned into a youth hostel, there is also the Museum of the Sea. The main exhibit of the fort is the cell where Iron Mask spent twelve years. Nearby there are two cemeteries - veterans of the Crimean War and World War II soldiers who fell in North Africa.
On the eastern and western ends of the island you can see curious defensive devices of the end of the 18th century: furnaces for the production of calcareous nuclei. They were built here in 1793 on the orders of General Bonaparte, the future Emperor Napoleon. In the furnace the nuclei were heated to a red glow, and they were dragged to the cannons with special tongs. Once in the attacking ship, the red-hot cannonball caused a fire. Seeing the smoke from such a furnace, ship captains preferred to evade the battle.
The island is covered with a diverse and very beautiful and fragrant forest - there are pine trees, the oldest in Europe eucalyptus, mastic pistachios, in the undergrowth - heather, myrtle, wood. There is a rich botanical garden, but now it is the private property of Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya. Due to winds and storms, the trunks of the trees are bent in the most extraordinary ways. The coastline is rocky, there are coves with pebble beaches convenient for swimming. There is a pedestrian path across the island, any kind of transport is forbidden here. Smoking is also prohibited on the island, but picnics are allowed in some places. You can have a snack in two local restaurants.
The only sound that breaks the local silence is the deafening singing of cicadas. It's impossible to believe that the Croisette is just a kilometre away.
