La Tête de Chien

This promontory is an important point in the landscape of the Riviera. In addition to the extraordinary panorama that it allows to contemplate both towards Nice and Italy, it also recalls that the Belle Époque, although a unique parenthesis of peace and carelessness, was from the military point of view a period of continuation of defensive constructions, such as the fort of the Tête de Chien completed in 1884 under the responsibility of General Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières, and which was part of the fortifications built between 1874 and the First World War.

It was this Doghead that made the fortress of Monaco lose much of its strategic importance during the 18th century. With technical progress, a battery installed on this promontory could now crush the square at close range.

Since the 1960s, the Doghead fortress has been assigned to the "Centre National d'Études des Télécommunications" (CNET), which after 2000 became "France Télécom Recherche et Développement". France Télécom, later known as "Orange", carried out scientific research on the site, which continued as part of a partnership between Orange Labs, the "Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique" (CNRS) and the Université Nice-Sophia-Antipolis.

The exploitation of an old quarry was stopped to ensure the preservation of the natural site. The main altar in polychrome marble of the church of Saint-Michel in La Turbie has a communion table in agate and onyx extracted from a quarry located the Doghead.

Access to the site is from the village of La Turbie and the parking lot of the Tête de Chien. The rocks of the Tête de Chien are well known to rock climbers and slackline enthusiasts.

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