The existing parish Church of Notre Dame d’Espérance occupies a prominent position on the Mont du Chevalier. It is a heavy building of the eighteenth century. The only redeeming feature it possesses is the west doorway (Fig. 156), which is a good example of the Renaissance work of the seventeenth century. The tower at the north-east angle of the church (seen in the above view) has been raised in comparatively recent times on the substructure of one of the original towers of the castle. The lower portion with its round archway is certainly ancient. The upper part, which is now the clock tower of the town, forms a prominent and telling feature in all the views of Cannes.
[Illustration: FIG. 156. NOTRE DAME D’ESPÉRENCE, CANNES.]
In the bay, opposite Cannes, lie the two Iles de Lérins, dedicated respectively to Ste Marguérite and St Honorat.
Architecturally speaking, the Island of St Honorat possesses the most interesting series of buildings in the Riviera, combining, as it does, some features of the architecture of every period and style of Provençal art, whether Ecclesiastical or Civil.
This island, which is the outer and smaller of the two, held, for some centuries, an important and honourable position in the West of Europe. It was originally occupied as a post by the Romans, the materials of whose buildings, in the form of broken bricks, etc., are scattered over the soil. We shall also find that some Roman columns have been preserved and utilised in the castle, while numerous Latin inscriptions may be seen built into the walls of the modern cloisters. In the fifth century the island seems to have been deserted when St Honorat retired to it, and there founded a monastery, which was destined to become famous. It constituted for long the chief repository of all the learning and education which remained in Southern Gaul; and, like Iona, became a centre from which missionaries issued to enlighten the surrounding countries, and spread religion amongst the Barbarians. Besides many other celebrities, St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is said to have been educated here.
A monastery was erected in the centre of the little island, which is only about half-a-mile in length. Some remains of a church of the eleventh century were still extant in 1836, when Mérimée visited the island. It was a simple basilica, having a nave of six bays, covered with a pointed barrel vault, and side aisles with abutting vaults, like Thoronet.