Var (department) France into the Zone libre, which included the Var department. The French Fleet was sabotaged in Toulon Harbour to keep it from falling into German hands. The Maquis Vallier, a group of maquis resistance fighters, was active. On 15 August 1944 American and Free French forces land at Saint-Tropez, Sainte-Maxime and Saint-Raphaël. The Free French fleet arrived at Toulon on 13 September. In the 1960s about one hundred thousand French citizens were repatriated from Algeria following the Algerian War of Independence and settled in the Var department. The department of Var has a surface area of 6,032 km, and 420
Saint-Tropez Muslim colony dominated by the nearby Saracenic settlement of Fraxinet.; in 940, Saint-Tropez was controlled by Nasr ibn Ahmad. From 961 to 963, Audibert, son of Berenger, the pretender to the throne of Lombardy who was pursued by Otto I, hid at Saint-Tropez. In 972, the Muslims of Saint-Tropez held the abbot of Cluny, Maïeul, for ransom. In 976, William I, Count of Provence, lord of Grimaud, began attacking the Muslims, and in 980 he built a tower where the Suffren tower now stands. In 1079 and 1218, Papal bulls mentioned the existence of a manor at Saint-Tropez. From 1436,