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Villefranche sur Mer
- Shakespeare would have loved Villefranche-sur-Mer, this land’s end on the sea, coveted by the powerful,
a pirates’ den that became a free port, regularly invaded, before being a resort for Princes, Kings and Emperors.
- Ancient Greek and Roman sailors had already spotted this naturally sheltered bay that later attracted Barbary pirates.
Charles II of Anjou, King of Sicily, Prince of Capua, Count of Provence, a nephew of French King Louis IX (Saint Louis),
decided this was where to build a town to introduce civilization and provide security to sailors and tradesmen.
The advantages of this natural harbour were such that it was coveted by many. Villefranche-sur-Mer was besieged and
pillaged in the constant conflicts between sovereigns and quickly shifting alliances. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and
French King Francis I met here to negotiate an ephemeral truce.
- Fortified in the 16th century by Duke Emmanuel-Philibert of Savoy to become the façade of his Duchy on the sea,
Villefranche-sur-Mer was a strategic site that continued to be disputed by the powers of southern Europe. Until the French
Revolution, the Houses of Austria, Spain and France in turn annexed the town and its harbour. French King Louis XIV delegated
his military engineer Vauban to study how to reinforce its defences.
- After 1860 when the population voted for annexation to France, Villefranche-sur-Mer devoted energy to its development,
becoming a tourist haven “launched” by Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. Since then, the powerful people of this
world come to Villefranche-sur-Mer and its harbour only for leisure and pleasure.
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