Mont Saint Clair

View of Sete from Mont St.Clair. Image published under the GNU Free Documentation License, verison 1.2 or later

Sete was constructed on and around Mount Saint Clair and several of its principal landmarks are located at its summit.

Mont Saint Clair, a hill with an altitude of approximately one hundred and seventy-five metres above sea level, commands impressive views of Sete, the Etang de Thau, les Cevannes, the plain of Herault and the Pic Saint-Loup.

The octagonal tower of the phare de Sete, a lighthouse constructed on the summit, dominates the town. Several adjoining buildings house machinery and formerly provided accommodation for the lighthouse keepers.

The lighthouse shines a white beam every five seconds which is generated by a one thousand watt halogen lamp. The beam is visible at a distance of over twenty-eight miles. Unfortunately this particular lighthouse is not open to the public.

La Chapelle-Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette. Image published under the GNU Free Documentation License, verison 1.2 or later.

The Chapelle-Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette is also located at the summit of Mont Saint Clair on the site of a former seventeenth century fort.

After it was abandoned by the army, the remnants of the fort were occupied by hermits who held masses for drowned sailors and lit beacons to warn of approaching pirates.

The site was taken over by the missionaires de la Salette in 1864, almost twenty years after the Virgin Mary had appeared to two young shepherds on Mount Salette in the French Alps.

The chapel was then dedicated to our Lady of the Salette whereupon the traditional pilgrimage to the chapel, held  on the nineteenth day of each month, was first initiated.

The chapel was not fully restored until 1897. The interior is notable for several murals depicting local life which were added by the artist Bringuier in 1954.

Le Cimitiere Marin. Image published under the GNU Free Documentation License, verison 1.2 or later.

Another prominent landmark is the Cimitiere Marin which was constructed on Mont St. Clair in 1843 from rock formerly used elsewhere in the port.

The cimitiere marin, or sailor's cemetery, was established to provide a final resting place for the numerous drowned sailors washed up in local harbours.

The cemetery became fashionable as the burial place of local celebrities after the French symbolist poet Paul Valery (1871-1945), who is also interred there, wrote a famous poem about it.

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