Overview of Toulon: History

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The history of Toulon is about three thousand years old. The Ligures settled here because of exceptional conditions:

• a hill protects the center of the town from the Mistral, a strong wind which blows in the southeast of France (you will experience wind almost everyday).
• on the south face of the hill, several sources gush out, which is exceptional in the so dry Provence. The name Toulon is linked to Telona, an ancient Ligurian goddess of sources.
• the hill (named Faron, about 500 m high) enables one to view boats arriving from very far away, specially enemy boats. The name Faron cames from the Greek pharos (English: lighthouse) for this reason. At the top of Faron, there still is a military camp dedicated to communications with submarines.
• the water of the port is very calm, because it is protected by a peninsula (Saint-Mandrier) that nearly closes the port as a lagoon. It was possible to watch boats entering the port from there.

For all these reasons, Toulon early became a town of military vocation. When the Romans invaded the Provence (Latin: provincia romana), they settled a military base and renamed the town Telo Martius, where martius recalls Mars, the Roman god of war.

During the Middle Ages, Provence was under the coup of lords, before being integrated into the French Kingdom in 1482. During the XVIIIth Century, Toulon became an important military port for France, were boats and sails were being built. A famous convict prison was built. During the French Revolution, Toulon gave support to the monarchy, but Bonaparte (later known as Napoleon the Ist) took back the town. During World War II, Toulon was invaded on November the 27th, 1942. The seamen scuttled all the boats so that the Nazis couldn't use them. The town was freed by the Allied Forces on August 25th, 1944.