Saint-Michel Basilica, Menton, France

Saint-Michel Basilica is a Baroque jewel with its incredible exterior, the bell-tower, the coloured cobbles of the parvis arranged to form the Grimaldi’s coat of arms and the “rampes Saint-Michel” (a series of flights of stairs).

The construction of the Basilica begun in 1640 under the reign of Honoré II, but took several centuries to be completed. The façade was then renovated in the 19th Century adding typical decor of the period such as smooth columns with ionic and corinthian capitals.

References:

Menton Tourism

Religious sites in France

User Reviews

Richard Moore (3 years ago)
Such a great place, Italy is 1km away and you can feel it's influence

Meng Lee (3 years ago)
After our lunch, we went for a slow n relaxing stroll. The place was quiet and peaceful. While walking thru the street, you can see how the resident live in the building. The church was just there for everyone.

Monique Könning (4 years ago)
Beautiful basilique. A must see in the old town of Menton.

Christine & Andre Perrin (4 years ago)
Stunning architecture and views of Mediterranean Sea. To reach the Basilica, walked up several flights of stairs, where each landing had an in-layed stone design. Continued down pathways through several tenements. Fabulous!

Shaheen Alkhudhari (6 years ago)
It's beautiful during sunset to see the amazing colors and better to see it from the beachside to have a great view over the city and the church.

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Broch of Gurness

The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village. Settlement here began sometime between 500 and 200 BC. At the centre of the settlement is a stone tower or broch, which once probably reached a height of around 10 metres. Its interior is divided into sections by upright slabs. The tower features two skins of drystone walls, with stone-floored galleries in between. These are accessed by steps. Stone ledges suggest that there was once an upper storey with a timber floor. The roof would have been thatched, surrounded by a wall walk linked by stairs to the ground floor. The broch features two hearths and a subterranean stone cistern with steps leading down into it. It is thought to have some religious significance, relating to an Iron Age cult of the underground.

The remains of the central tower are up to 3.6 metres high, and the stone walls are up to 4.1 metres thick. The tower was likely inhabited by the principal family or clan of the area but also served as a last resort for the village in case of an attack.

The broch continued to be inhabited while it began to collapse and the original structures were altered. The cistern was filled in and the interior was repartitioned. The ruin visible today reflects this secondary phase of the broch's use.

The site is surrounded by three ditches cut out of the rock with stone ramparts, encircling an area of around 45 metres diameter. The remains of numerous small stone dwellings with small yards and sheds can be found between the inner ditch and the tower. These were built after the tower, but were a part of the settlement's initial conception. A 'main street' connects the outer entrance to the broch. The settlement is the best-preserved of all broch villages.

Pieces of a Roman amphora dating to before 60 AD were found here, lending weight to the record that a 'King of Orkney' submitted to Emperor Claudius at Colchester in 43 AD.

At some point after 100 AD the broch was abandoned and the ditches filled in. It is thought that settlement at the broch continued into the 5th century AD, the period known as Pictish times. By that time the broch was not used anymore and some of its stones were reused to build smaller dwellings on top of the earlier buildings. Until about the 8th century, the site was just a single farmstead.

In the 9th century, a Norse woman was buried at the site in a stone-lined grave with two bronze brooches and a sickle and knife made from iron. Other finds suggest that Norse men were buried here too.

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