CITADEL SAINT-TROPEZ - MARITIME HISTORY MUSEUM

The Citadel

Since 1589, the Citadelle has crowned the town, following work on the Moulins hill supervised by Marshal de Villars. This fortress was destroyed six years later, before new defensive works were carried out in the early ^17th century, on the same site, by military engineer Raymond de Bonnefons. The citadel's current keep, a hexagonal tower encircling an inner courtyard accessible via a drawbridge, was completed in 1607. An enclosure was built around the bastion a few years later. The most important defensive element between Antibes and Toulon for centuries, it remains one of the few monuments of this scale on the Var coast. During the First World War, the citadel served as an internment camp for German prisoners, before being occupied by Italian and German troops in 1942. During the August 1944 landings on the Mediterranean beaches, the citadel and the town were liberated by Allied troops and the ^1st French Army. You can visit the citadel in two ways. View the landscape, the fort and take a 45-minute tour of the museum. Or the museum is designed so that you can stay for 3 hours, with 2 levels of reading. Each room (there are 21) has its own theme and story.

Maritime History Museum

In the fortress's beautiful dungeon, visitors can discover the saga of Tropez sailors on the world's seas, such as those of Captain Annibal Bérard in Zanzibar or Captain Morello on the Indian coast. On the first floor, visitors can discover local maritime activities such as fishing, coastal shipping, torpedo building and the hydrography school that trained hundreds of captains in the ^19th century. Upstairs, the museum invites you to escape to the four corners of the globe in the company of Tropezian sailors. Journeys to the Orient in the ^18th century, to the coasts of Africa and India aboard the great wooden three-masts of the ^19th century, and campaigns around Cape Horn and on warships are just a few examples. In a modern scenography that leaves plenty of room for interactivity, visitors plunge into a little-known maritime history through some 300 objects spread over 21 rooms. The tour ends on the dungeon terrace, with rooms devoted to yachting and motorboating, and a bonus view of the region.