The heat is overwhelming and despite glorious weather and calm seas, docking the islet of Château d’If, located 1.5 kilometers off the coast of Marseille, is not easy. Despite its turquoise waters, the place, bordered by protruding rocks, is highly inhospitable and difficult to access. Even today, disembarking there in mistral weather is more than perilous and maritime connections are suspended as soon as the sea rises.
Famous, real, fictional or anonymous prisoners
Presented in this way, it is easy to understand why this piece of land served as a fortress to defend the entrance to the city and as a prison for nearly four hundred years. Among its inmates, some real ones have remained famous, such as the revolutionary Mirabeau, incarcerated for a few months between 1774 and 1775, or the communard Gaston Crémieux, shot in 1871 in the prison. Thousands of unfortunate anonymous people also stayed there, such as the 3,500 or so Protestants martyred at the Château d’If after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
But it is undoubtedly the power of fiction that gave the Château d’If its most famous prisoner with the character of the Count of Monte Cristo brought to life by Alexandre Dumas. In his novel The Count of Monte Cristoadapted for the cinema and released in theaters this Friday, the famous novelist begins the adventures of his hero who, before taking the title of count, was only a simple sailor answering to the name of Edmond Dantès, played by Pierre Niney in the film.
An escape that inspired a swim race
Unjustly incarcerated against a backdrop of romantic rivalry and political conspiracy in a post-Bonapartist France, Edmond Dantès is destined to be forgotten by being thrown into a sinister cell in the castle. The entire first part of the novel takes place there and before encountering madness, Edmond Dantès meets Abbot Faria, a fellow prisoner with whom he manages to communicate by digging a gallery between their two cells. A gallery which has been reconstituted for the pleasure of some 100,000 annual visitors to the site.
After fourteen years locked up, Edmond Dantès manages to escape, pretending to be dead and thrown into the sea. He then reaches the island of Monte Cristo, located between Corsica and Italy, where there is a fabulous treasure revealed by Father Faria. A fortune that the now Count of Monte Cristo will use to carry out his revenge. Today, as a tribute to this romantic escape, “the Monte Cristo challenge”, a swimming race, is organized each year in Marseille.
