Département: Var
The town of Fréjus is situated in the eastern section of the French Riviera between the Massif des Maures and the Massif de l'Esterel. Not far to the southeast the River Argens flows into the Mediterranean.
Whether the site of the Forum Julii, founded by Caesar, was already settled in pre
-Roman times has not been conclusively proved. Under the Emperor Augustus the place became a royal port and was linked to the sea by a canal 1,200m/1,313yd long and 30m/33yd wide. In the fourth C. Fréjus became the see of a bishop, and in the 10th C. it suffered from attacks by the Saracens. From the 12th C. onwards the development was frequently influenced by epidemics of plague. The harbor had to be finally abandoned in the 18th C. because of silting up. In August 1944 Allied forces landed here.
The breaching of the Malpasset Dam in 1959 was a catastrophe. The mighty rush of water down the valley caused 421 deaths and buried the town under mud.
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