Castle Museum Castres on a hill Suquet clearly visible from the quays of Cannes: a powerful castle tower dominates the surroundings. This is the legacy of the medieval town, which remains not so much.

Twenty-two meter tower was built by the monks of the Abbey of Lerins. In 1030 the Count of Provence had sold part of his land for the construction of the abbey buildings, which would help to protect the neighborhood from attacks by pirates and Saracens. Its construction began in 1080. In 1327 between the fortified abbey on the island of Saint-Honore and the Great Tower Suquet as it was called, it had been established even alarm - observers to notify the danger looming from the sea. Around the tower gradually built a feudal castle, homes and a hospital. In the XVIII century, the castle was partially destroyed. The revolution under the ruins of adapted housing, then - under the pottery.

History museum located there dates back to 1877 when the traveler and connoisseur of art Baron Liklama make the city a generous gift: acquired in the Middle East and Central Asia curiosities, art Oceania and pre-Columbian America, a rich collection of antiques. It is this gift, and formed the basis of the museum's collection. Later the collection was filled by donations from private collections: for example, Baron Alphonse de Rothschild presented a considerable number of paintings.

Almost half a century the collection was housed in the building of the Town Hall, but in 1919 the municipality especially for the museum bought the castle Castres. His collection for a small seaside town looks unconventional: next to the works of art of the East, Oceania, Alaska, America's pre-Columbian ceramics are presented musical instruments peoples of the world, landscape painting "small masters" Provence XIX century antiques.

Here you can see the Tibetan and Indian masks, household items Inuit (Aboriginal people in Canada), Colombian stone sculptures, weapons Polynesians. At the bottom of the tower exhibited Sumerian cuneiform tablets, Sidon gold funerary mask. Painting is represented by "small masters" Cannes of the XIX century: the paintings of Joseph Contini, Ernest Buttura. Curious portrait of the progenitor of the museum, Baron Liklama, brush Emile Lecomte-Vernet: Baron depicted in the lush eastern robes nobles.

Premises adjacent to the tower of the former chapel of St. Anne (the monument of XII century) brought to an impressive collection of musical instruments in Africa, Southeast Asia, South America, Oceania. Here are exhibited the drums, flutes made of bamboo, shells singing with the Marquesas Islands.

The tourists should climb on the tower itself. It is not easy: the top are 119 steep steps. But from the observation deck with a spectacular panoramic view - the sea, the Lerins Islands, Cannes, Southern Alps.