The ruins that dominate Èze's botanical garden belong to an old castle built in the second part of the 12th century by the family of Èze. It was guarded by the Castellans at the time of the Counts of Provence and the Dukes of Savoy and finally destroyed by the French troops in 1706. The castle's history is closely linked to that of the village, which has long been an object of contentious desires. In the Iron Age (around 220 BC), the first local populations took shelter on the rock of Èze, where fragments of walls bear witness to their early occupation. Subsequently, the Èzasques built their homes under the fortress away from the access roads.