Tour du Masque (Mask Tower), Cannes

The Mask Tower is one of the few medieval structures still visible in the Old Town. Built around 1200 as part of the town’s defensive walls, it was originally a practical military structure. Its thick stone walls and narrow openings reflect that purpose. What makes it especially interesting today, however, is the story behind its name.

The tower is associated with the mystery of the “Man in the Iron Mask,” an unidentified state prisoner during the reign of Louis XIV from 1643 to 1715. The prisoner was arrested on 19 July 1669 under the name “Eustache Dauger” and spent 34 years in custody, moved between several prisons under the supervision of Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars. He eventually died in the Bastille on 19 November 1703. His burial record listed the name “Marchioly,” which has led some historians to suggest he may have been the Italian diplomat Ercole Antonio Mattioli.

Although the masked prisoner was most famously held on nearby Sainte-Marguerite Island and later in Paris, local tradition connects him to Cannes, and over time the legend became attached to this tower. His true identity has never been definitively proven, and the secrecy surrounding his imprisonment created one of France’s longest-running historical mysteries.

Writers such as Alexandre Dumas later turned the mysterious prisoner into a literary figure, ensuring that the story lived on far beyond historical documents. Today, the Mask Tower represents not just medieval fortifications, but one of France’s most debated historical enigmas.