Why go
Knowing the difference changes what the headland means. The ancient site was an organised farming settlement with stone houses and pressing equipment, while the perched village later developed its own medieval and modern history. The excavated production spaces make that ancient economy unusually concrete.
The full story
Older accounts variously imagined Phoenician, Mycenaean or early Ligurian beginnings for the Mont-Bastide site above Beaulieu-sur-Mer. Archaeological work gives a more concrete picture: a walled agricultural settlement with closely arranged stone houses along a main street. Pressing installations on the ground floors point to wine or oil production. The earliest identified occupation reaches back to the second century BC, with stronger activity during the early Roman Empire. This is a history of work and settlement, not simply a tale of a dramatic lookout. Medieval Èze followed a different political path through local lordships. The commune was also larger than today; La Trinité separated from it in 1818. A coastal tramway served Èze in the early twentieth century. Those later changes help explain why the familiar hilltop village is only one part of the area’s longer story.