Museum of the Iron Mask and Fort Royal, Maritime museum at Fort Royal on Île Sainte-Marguerite, France

The museum of the Iron Mask and Fort Royal occupies the Vieux Château, the largest building of the Fort Royal on Île Sainte-Marguerite off Cannes. Its tan stone wall with slanted openings meets a terracotta-orange facade with rows of small windows, where a red striped flag hangs above an arched entrance marked "MUSEE". Inside, the state prisons built under Louis XIV, Roman cisterns on the ground floor, and shipwreck finds and Roman frescoes upstairs are spread over several levels.

The fortress began as a military base and later became a state prison in the late 1600s. It gained fame after holding the mysterious Man in the Iron Mask from 1687 to 1698.

The museum's name refers to the Man in the Iron Mask, held in a prison built for him from 1687 to 1698. A Huguenot memorial occupies a former cell and honours six Protestant ministers jailed for their religion in the 17th and 18th centuries, among them Paul Cardel, who died there in 1694.

To reach the museum, take a ferry boat from Cannes to the island, which takes about 15 minutes. The ferry dock lands you right near the fortress entrance.

The museum's upper floor displays objects recovered from shipwrecks, alongside Roman frescoes. Excavations in the fort between 1973 and 1986, led by Georges Vindry, uncovered a Hellenistic-style settlement with houses, alleys and sewers from the 1st century BC, plus a wall with semi-circular structures.