The Château d’If

The Travel Pages takes the ferry from Marseille to visit the Chateau d’If, a popular trip from the city to the island made famous by The Count of Monte Cristo.

The offshore island on which the evocative The Château d’If stands is an example of early literary tourism. It owes much of its fame to a novel, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, and to a prisoner who never existed, Edmond Dantès.

Escape from the Chateau d’If

It takes only 15-20 minutes to reach the island today by boat from Marseille, but in the days when the Château was a prison, most people never made the return journey. The fictional Dantès was a notable exception, escaping after five years in the prison cells. In reality, no-one is known to have ever escaped from the Chateau d’If. A prisoner’s fate was either eventual release, or death. The strong offshore currents

The Chateau d’If and Other Islands

Seeing those cells is still a surprisingly haunting experience, even though it has become a popular day trip from Marseille’s Vieux Port and the boats are often crowded. Many people prefer to skip the Château and stay on the boats to go and visit the other small islands offshore, which have more appeal for sunbathers as there is nothing to do on the tiny island of If other than to see the castle, walk around the outside, and catch the next boat back.

The Man in the Iron Mask

The short visit is well worth making, though, to see and hear the stories that lurk behind those prison walls. As well as featuring in The Count of Monte Cristo, the Château is also possibly one of the prisons in which The Man in the Iron Mask (another Dumas novel) was held, but this is never confirmed.

History of the Chateau d’If

The Château was originally built as a fortress in the early 16th century by King François I, but because of its location and sturdy walls it very quickly became a prison… and a most effective one. It remained a prison until the 19th century, and very quickly opened as an unusual visitor attraction in 1890.

Some of the cells today are kept as basic as they were, while those on the upper floors are quite spacious. Well-to-do prisoners could even pay for an upgrade into a larger cell that had windows and a fireplace. Today some of them have TVs, too, showing historical videos about the Château and clips from some of the films inspired by the Dumas books.

Wildlife at the Chateau d’If

The Sicilian Lizard is also a prisoner on If, brought to the island in 1883 on a ship from Italy. It escaped and has since flourished, and there’s a short trail around the Château and information boards about the wildlife that can be found here.

Getting to the Chateau d’If

Ferries leave from the Vieux Port in Marseille, sometimes from along the quai du Port or sometimes from the quai des Belges. Ferries leave from about 9am at hourly intervals daily in summer, less frequently from Tuesday-Sunday in winter. The last ferry back coincides with the closing time of the Château d’If, so don’t get locked inside!