![]() ![]() The cliff-top watchtower can be seen from the ferry crossing between Malta and Gozo. In the 2002 adaptation starring Jim Caviezel, the château was represented by Saint Mary's Tower on Comino, the smallest inhabited Maltese island. However, other locations have been used to represent Château d'If in film adaptations of the work. ![]() The Château d'If is famous for being one of the settings of Alexandre Dumas' 1844 adventure novel The Count of Monte Cristo.In fictional works Ĭhâteau d'If was represented by Saint Mary's Tower in the 2002 film The Count of Monte Cristo The Château d'If is listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture. There is a sign at the château that says "Prison dite de l'Homme au Masque de Fer" ("Said to be the prison of the Man in the Iron Mask"), but this is likely only legend since the famed Man in the Iron Mask was never held at the Château d'If. He says a guide took his party into the prison, which was not yet open to the public, and inside the cells, one of which he says housed the "Iron Mask". He recounts his visit in his book, The Innocents Abroad. Mark Twain visited the château in July 1867, during a months-long pleasure excursion. This fame has made the prison a popular tourist destination. ![]() Its fame comes from the setting for Dumas' novel, The Count of Monte Cristo. It can be reached by boat from Marseille's old port. It was demilitarized and opened to the public on 23 September 1890. The château's use as a prison ceased at the end of the 19th century. However, the wealthiest inmates were able to pay for their own private cells (or pistoles) higher up, with windows, a garderobe and a fireplace. The poorest were placed at the bottom, being confined perhaps twenty or more to a cell in windowless dungeons under the castle. The modern Château d'If maintains a roughly hewn dungeon in honour of Dantès as a tourist attraction.Īs was common practice in those days, prisoners were treated differently according to their class and wealth. In reality, no one is known to have done this. After fourteen years, Dantès makes a daring escape from the castle, becoming the first person ever to do so and survive. In the novel, the main character Edmond Dantès (a commoner who later purchases the noble title of Count) and his mentor, Abbé Faria, were both imprisoned in it. The island became internationally famous in the 19th century, when Alexandre Dumas used it as a setting for his novel The Count of Monte Cristo, published to widespread acclaim in 1844. Over 3,500 Huguenots (French Calvinists/identifying Christians) were sent to Château d'If, as was Gaston Crémieux, a leader of the Paris Commune, who was shot there in 1871. Its use as a dumping ground for political and religious detainees soon made it one of the most feared and notorious jails in France. The isolated location and dangerous offshore currents of the Château d'If made it an ideal escape-proof prison, very much like the island of Alcatraz in California in more recent times. The cell named after Edmond Dantès at the Château d'If It remained there for 18 years, until King Louis XVIII granted Kléber a proper burial in his native Strasbourg. First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, fearing that his tomb would become a symbol to Republicanism, ordered that the body stay at the château. The embalmed body of general Jean Baptiste Kléber was repatriated to France after his assassination in Cairo in 1800. The whole been very badly built with little care All the buildings very crudely done ill made." In 1701, the military engineer Vauban questioned its suitability to defend against an actual attack: "The fortifications look like the rock they are fully rendered, but very roughly and carelessly, with many imperfections. The closest that it came to a genuine test of strength was in July 1531, when the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V made preparations to attack Marseille. The castle's principal military value was as a deterrent it never had to fight off an actual attack. It was built from 1524–1531 on the orders of King Francis I, who, during a visit in 1516, saw the island as a strategically important location for defending the coastline from sea-based attacks. The " château" is a square, three-story building 28 m (92 ft) long on each side, flanked by three towers with large gun embrasures. ![]()
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