New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-04-03
A WINTER JOURNEY.
AN OLD HILL-TOWN.
VI.
lrRoM 4 STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF TIE IRInON ~

| few
| except at a good deal of trouble and cost. There
WAS no railway then along the coast. There was no
mort and if you came by you must anchor in an
| omen roalstead and land in n small boat. There
was m carriage OF wagon-road except the Cornice,
! and that was so Ill-provided with bridges that at
! certain seasons il was dangerous. Besides, the
Ccrnice was Of little use Il means OF cominunlca-
| ton with the surrounding country AS soon as IL
| left Mentone II began to ascend the lace OF the
cliffs reaching an elevation of 1000 feet above the
sea and it did not down again until it arrived
at Nice distance of fifteen miles i'll direct line,
! and nearly twenty miles by the wiDdiDgs OF the
| road. In the opposite direction-the route INTO
| Italy-the stages were somewhat shorter, but the
road had the general character-a ledge carved
ont Of the face of the precipces high above human
| habitatiOns and coming down to earth III the eA-
| preston may be allowed only at rare Intervals
! The mountain ainphitheatre which shuts i'll Mentone
| on the land side was nowhere crossed except by
| difficult donkey paths: and whatever the town
| needed. if it could not he hauled from Nice or
! landed from boats had TO be brought on the DacAs
| of the small pack animals which no family theh
! and few now could afford to be without. ii the
| communications had not been greatly improved 1t
would be impossible to supply the transient foreign
| population which has increased so rapidly iii the
| mast fifteen wears Yet the roads into the back
| pOuutrX
| start from Mentone but only arrives anywhere
| chat one is a superb macadamized highway when
ascends the valley of the Care torrent crosses tue
! Col Iii Guardia at an elevation of 24OO feet 1--WE
miles inland and meets the diligence road from Nice
tn Turin at the little old town of SOspello or AS the
| French call it, Sospel. This and the Cornice are
| the only ways by which wagon can get into Men
| tone Tie two unfinished roads when nave
spoken Of extend only mile or two INTO The valleys
| ~ vet and have not even begun the ascent OF the
: hills.
| # is not surprising therefore that the mountain
reoou close around this popular resort, beng mac
c,ssibe except aioot and Oh donkey-back' shoniu
retain great deal OF the picturesque rndeheSS winch
RAILWAYS and Cooks tourists are making IL so mar"
! "a find The heights abound with villages which
never saw a horse; and there are peasant com
munlfics who's whole life. for ages back has been
bounded by the terraces within sight OF their OWL
| particular HILL Men and women cultivate the
| rocky soil and when the days work Is over they
| climb break-neck path 90 a heap of wretched
! houses huddled upon a peak where poverty mas
! made its home for perhaps thousand years. In
NEST cases these hill owns mark the site OF al an
cicnt fortress and the remnants of bathenents ana
towers can still he studied among the novels.
Strongholds used to abound in all this region lie
| Saracens who came at first on rowing piratlca eX-
petitions took serious possession Of the county IN
the ninth century, driving out the pe'ty lords WHO
luudered if before them, and they held IL for more
than a hundred years with castles and watch
towers on all the commanding heights. 1t was by
sort of crusade that they at last expelled OF
reduced to slavery and then the Christian seigneurs
robbed and oppressed in their stead. There is an
Interesting relic of these remote military eTas on
| the route between Mentone and SospelO. On the
| summit Of the Col di Guardia fortress was an
| GENTLY maintained as advance post for the pro-
| lection of Sospeo which lay in hi Oh valley three
or four miles behind it. The Moors took it, they
took almost everything else Later 1t was IN the
hands of the GcnOese masters at that time OF all
this part Of Liguria and they sold it in the thir-
eenth century to Charles Of Anlou brother OF hing
| Iouis IX of France and afterward King OF Sicily
| the same miserable prince whose tyranny pro-
yoked the massacre of the Sicilian Nespers. But
| the traveller probably will caro- less about the
details of it's obscure history than its present re-
| markable condition.
The ascent by the Tarin road is exceedingly
| steep. and so tortuous that. with doublings and
zczags the course actually traycrsed fron the sea
| 70 the top of the pass is nine miles, although the
distance as the bird flies is only five Long before
| fine summit is reached the tOwn-for the fortress
| has becone a town and is called Castllon-appcars
high in air on a mass of rock seemingly impossible
10 climb The road in fact never does climb 1t Tor
after il has pierced the dividing ridge of the Col di
| Guardia by tunnel. it turns sharply away toward
| Sospello and to reach Castillon you must walk
about a quarter of a mile and mount still hun
dred feet. Tho track here is wide enough for small
| donkey carts; but | saw very few signs that Cas-
| tucn possessed anything on wheels. The site is
| saddle between two imposing peaks, jagged and
| bare which bar the view east and west from the
Their sides there is q rapid descent with an extern
sive prospect: northward looking far and wide over
the tops of the lower hills and away to the Alpine
! snow-coyered SUBMITS that bound the horizon; and
| southword surveying the beautiful Caoi valley.
| between whose olive clad slopes there opened dur
ing our ascent so many rayishIng views Of the sea.
On a projection of the ridge thrust forward over
this valley stands an isolated round tOgeT half de-
| stroyed and chokei with rubbish. It's IuinOus and
solitary aspect BELTS the desOlatIon of spot whore
no Tee grows and hardly bush, and where Che
scanty heritage is far from enough to cover tho dis
orderly heaps of blush rock. said Just now that
the fortress has become town. and can think
of no other word applicable to the process which has
| made CastillOn what it is. From little distance
the height of the house walls gives the place rather
an imposing appearance; but on close inspcction
we perceive that this little peasant community. in
stead of building around the old castle has simply
| built in it if said burrowed and built in 1t
should perhaps be nearer tho truth IN some places
the ancient masonry remains. On one side there is
q considerable expanse of the castc-wall overhang
Ing precpce; here and there are bits of old Win
dow and archway; trace the outlines of
towers but all these antique remnants have been
turned to use i'll the arrangement of the existing
dwellings. For the most part the houses are OF
much later date than the original caste but they
were probably built out of the fragments of it, and
on substantially the same outer lines The fortress
occupied a platform of rock. and it was perhaps
easier TO dig and build among the runs than to OK
tend the construction down the steep sides.