The Cimiez hill ‘Sites’ collection thousand inhabitants. In the 4th century, The hill in the the Roman conquest spread northwards, resulting in a loss of Cemenelum’s status modern era as a prefecture, which was instead At the foot of the Cimiez hill, on the slope transferred on to Embrun. Cemenelum over which the ancient Via Julia once declined as the neighbouring city of ran, the Saint-Pons Abbey was founded Nicæa rose (in Latin, from which we get around the 8th century by the Benedictine the French word ‘Nice’). monks, designed to replace the ancient As Christianity spread, the two cities each funerary basilica erected over the tomb received a diocese, perhaps as early as in of Saint Pontius. This monastery outside [1] The garden at the Arènes de Cimiez featuring the Roman amphitheatre, the olive grove and the monastery, the Villa 314 for Nicæa and in 439 in Cemenelum. Gubernatis (Matisse museum) and the archaeological dig site. the city became the first local makeshift Photo City of Nice The ancient thermal baths to the west trader to deal in personal property, real were transformed into a Christian basilica estate, leases and taxes in the Middle ith its archaeological ruins, behind the front lines, designed to stand and baptistery. Yet in an illustration of its Ages. At the time, it was a significant museums, old hotels and Belle between the Emperor Augustus’s legions dwindling power, from 466 the diocese site of pilgrimage. Monks were able to Époque W villas and gardens, the and the fiercely defensive Alpine tribes. of Cemenelum was annexed to that of spread across the entire region, building Cimiez hill emerges as one of Nice’s The site was flat and raised, with water Nicæa. Despite barbarian invasions, numerous churches as they went. It most fascinating sites. To take the time being brought down from the surrounding the site of Cemenelum continued to be was thus that in 1450, they turned the to explore it on foot is to delve into Nice’s hills. On the other side, the Greeks built a inhabited to a greater or lesser extent modest chapel dedicated to Mary that th rich past that stretches from Antiquity trading post in Nikaïa (Nice) on the site of until the 8 century, with the ancient had been built a few centuries earlier in to the present day, in the exceptional the current Castle hill. buildings occupied by dwellings and Cimiez into a single-nave church, not far setting of a residential district. Once peace had been restored to the farms. Following a final razing in the era from their abbey and from the Roman region in the 1st century AD, Cemenelum of Charles Martel, the majority of the amphitheatre where their dedicatory The ancient became the administrative capital of the population clustered together in Nice, saint, Pontius, was raised to martyrdom new Roman province of Alpes maritimæ. on the Castle hill. The former capital in around 257. As their income dwindled hill A Gallo-Roman city developed. An of the Alpes-Maritimes gradually fell in the 16th century, the Benedictines were amphitheatre (improperly called “the to ruin. It was used as a stone quarry unable to keep up with spending in their Two hills stand gazing out over one Arenas”) and three baths [2] were built in and the remaining vestiges were buried community. In 1546, they relinquished another: the Castle and Cimiez hills, the 1st to 2nd centuries AD, and their vestiges under weeds and farming plots [3]. It their land in Cimiez and the chapel to the split by the Paillon, a coastal river that make up the current archaeological site disappeared from the archives, as did Franciscans, whose monastery, located is now covered by the Promenade du which is also rich in a number of dwellings. most of Nice’s written history in the times on the present-day Place Saint-François Paillon. The two hills were inhabited in Because the amphitheatre could seat up known as the ‘dark’ ages. in Nice’s old town, had been sacked High Antiquity by Celto-Ligurian tribes. to five thousand spectators, Cemenelum during the Franco-Ottoman siege of the The Vediantiens fortified one slope close must have been home to at least ten city three years before. to the present-day Cimiez monastery, The miner monks built a first cloister nicknamed the “sacred wood”. They topped with units, had a cistern dug placed themselves under Rome’s out and repaired the church, where protection when the Romans chose to they placed magnificent Louis Brea establish the city of Cemenelum on the altarpieces that had been salvaged from surrounding plateau at the end of the the destroyed convent. Piéta (1475), st 1 century BC. In doing so, the Romans Crucifixion [4] (1512), The Lamentation were merely giving Latin form to a local of Christ, are three of the Brea’s most name, Cemenelum [1]. significant masterpieces, a dynasty of The site was not chosen at random, as Nice painters that was active across it lay alongside the Via Julia Augusta, the entire region. Louis Brea, who was the long road linking Rome to Spain. [2] The Cemenelum archaeological site, ruins of the [3] The Roman amphitheatre cultivated for crops in the 18th approached by the future Pope Julian The choice of site was primarily military, northern baths. century. II in 1490, played a key role in the Photo City of Nice Watercolour engraving taken from the Corografia dell’Italia. as Cemenelum was a garrison town development of religious paintings from the Franciscan monastery in Nice’s old and opened to the public in 1927. town. Vandalised in 1979, this marble The charm of its rose gardens and the Calvary was restored and placed inside spectacular views seen here make it a the church. A copy can now be seen at delightful place for a stroll and a favourite the original site. for newly-wed photo sessions. Outside To the left of the church was the of the Franciscan convent complex, the Cimiez cemetery [6] where a number Cimiez hill was a farming space where of patricians, artists and members of olive groves were dotted among plots bourgeois society from Nice and abroad of farmed land, grazing pastures and [9] The Garin de Cocconato property prior to being were buried, sometimes in tombs that vineyards. A number of Nice’s nobles bought by the City in 1923. are characteristic of the 19th century’s had holiday homes and gardens here Nice, Bibliothèque de Cessole library. Copy City of Nice demonstrative and eclectic funerary art. within the farmland. The most famous It is here too that the painters Raoul Dufy of these is the Palais de Gubernatis, plots of land from 1924 on. Under the and Henri Matisse, as well as the writer now home to the Musée Matisse [8]. Second French Empire, the lower section Roger Martin du Gard, are buried. From 1670 to 1685, the president of the of Cimiez and the Carabacel district were [4] Crucifixion, altarpiece by Louis Brea, 1572. Sénat de Nice Jean-Baptiste Gubernatis largely made up of residences and hotels Photo City of Nice transformed a traditional farmstead into for winter visitors. a sumptuous Genovese villa embellished As with most of Nice’s hills, Cimiez was the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. In with trompe-l’œil décor. The property lacking in water. With the joining of the the 1660s, the church was expanded with extended out across the entire present-day Vésubie canal and the Gairaut waterfall the addition of an apse and side chapels, archaeological site, now covered in fields. in 1883, Nice’s hills and gardens were scattered with walnut sideboards, stalls, The ancient baths were home to farms. irrigated with drinkable water. The a pulpit and an impressive golden shrewd developer and Nice architect S. th altarpiece on the high altar. In the 18 M. Biasini joined forces with the director century, a vast outdoor cloister was built [6] The Cimiez cemetery in the 19th century Oil on canvas by François Bensa. of Crédit Lyonnais, Henri Germain, to overlooking the vegetable patch, as Photo City of Nice divide the southern slope of the Cimiez was an entrance portico. In 1844, the hill into plots. They bought most of the th latter was replaced with a façade in the A museum was founded inside the 17 plots of land and opened the city’s longest troubadour style that was in fashion at century convent buildings, painted with straight road, the Boulevard de Cimiez the time [5], a Gothic romantic style that a fresco depicting Franciscan life in [10], inaugurated on 31 December 1884. th the kings of Piedmont chose to decorate Nice from the 13 century to the present [8] Northern façade of the Villa Gubernatis, present-day Once levelled, the land was sold at the Hautecombe abbey where their day. Following laws on the separation Matisse museum. Photo City of Nice huge profit to real estate companies, ancestors were buried. of the Church and State in 1901, the residence groups who built villas and In 1804, the seraphic cross of 1477 monastery’s gardens [7] became the apartment buildings, and hotels. Thus, was erected in the monastery’s square, property of the local council. They were although it had initially been housed in landscaped into an Italian-style garden Cimiez in the Belle Epoque Over the course of the 19th century, many of these vast estates were bought in order to build opulent villas nestled in wooded grounds. The Gubernatis estate was handed over to the Garin de Cocconato family in 1823 [9] who turned it into an English holiday residence at the end of the 19th century. In 1863, the Brazilian [5] The Cimiez monastery square, troubadour-style façade ambassador to Russia, Da Silva, bought [10] The Boulevard de Cimiez and grand hotels circa (1844) of the church and seraphic cross (1477, copy). [7] The gardens at the Cimiez monastery. 9 hectares of land he named Liserb (an 1920. Photo City of Nice Photo City of Nice Photo Jean Gilletta. Copy City of Nice anagram of ‘Brésil’), transformed into the Compagnie Internationale des vast grounds where the rich and wealthy Wagons-lits built the Riviera Palace here from around the world once rubbed in 1893. Two years later, an electric tram shoulders, such as the Villa Paradiso, built connected the hill to the city centre. in 1896 by Baron Van Zuylen, President of On either side of this boulevard, sprawling the Automobile Club de France, who used hotels were beginning to pop up, including it to entertain major manufacturers, drivers the Alhambra, Winter Palace and the and collectors. Bought by the city in 1943, it Hôtel de Cimiez to name but a few, as housed the Music Conservatory until 2007. did a plethora of villas where rich holiday- Opposite lies the Musée National Marc makers set up for the winter season on the Chagall on a plot of land from the Olivetto Riviera, the ultimate winter destination for [12] The Excelsior Regina luxury hotel estate, gifted by the city in order to house aristocrats and members of high society. Postcard circa 1920. the Message Biblique, donated by the Copy City of Nice [14] Concerts in the cloister, Cimiez monastery The idea was to impress, to flaunt one’s artist to the French state. The museum Photo City of Nice wealth, and sometimes the breadth of in wealthy winter holiday-makers through was opened in 1973 in the presence of one’s cultural sensitivities. Because of this, this royal seal of approval and unrivalled the painter himself and André Malraux, ballets have long been performed in the an eclectic range of façades and interior comfort, the Regina was inaugurated by the great writer, minister of culture and the amphitheatre, featuring stars such as designs can be seen, from the oriental- the Queen in 1897. Queen Victoria stayed brains behind the initiative. Another great Régine Crespin and the Bolshoi Ballet. inspired style of the Villa Surany and the here until 1899 in the western tower artist, Henri Matisse, had often frequented Then, spurred on by American producer Hôtel Alhambra, to the Neo-Gothic flair of where she had her apartments. A statue Nice from 1917 on. In November 1938, George Wein, the Jazz Festival ushered the Villa Valrose and the Belgrano manor’s [13] sculpted by Maubert has stood here he purchased two apartments on the 3rd the world’s greatest jazz musicians into Neo-Renaissance feel [11]. since 1912, a reminder of the queen at the floor of the Regina, where he created the Arenas’ gardens from 1974 to 2010. entrance to the Regina’s gardens. a number of masterpieces, including Classical music is still represented many of the cut-out watercolours so here with the Concerts du Cloître [14] characteristic of his later years. He died held since 1957 by the Académie here on 3 November 1954. Internationale d’Eté, bringing together Donations made by the artist, his wife and professors and concert musicians leading heirs to the city of Nice were showcased master classes. in 1963 on the first floor of the former Villa Last but not least, the traditional Gubernatis. On the ground floor, items celebrations of the Festin des Cougourdons from digs on the ancient site can be seen. for the Annunciation of Mary and May A spectacular victory, as the Garin estate [13] Statue of Queen Victoria by L. Maubert, 1912 festivities [15] to celebrate the arrival of [11] The Belgrano manor on Avenue Edouard VII Photo City of Nice was put up for sale in 1923, along with spring take over the Jardin des Arènes and Nice, Bibliothèque de Cessole library. the villa and the ancient site, and plans to the Place du Monastère. Copy City of Nice parcel off the land began. If this had been Cimiez became one of Nice’s most elegant allowed to take place, a round-shaped boroughs. Its tourism, and then residential Cimiez today apartment block would have been built industries, were mainly spurred on by The disappearance of a number of empires inside the walls of the amphitheatre. Queen Victoria’s stays here from 1895 to during World War I, the impoverishment After lengthy proceedings, the town 1899. After having resided in a number of the aristocracy, economic crisis and council ultimately bought the site in 1941 of the Côte d’Azur’s cities and towns, the behavioural changes have gradually led to and the villa, since renamed the ‘Villa des monarch spent the winters of 1895 and luxury hotels closing their doors and being Arènes’, in 1950. 1896 in the Grand Hôtel de Cimiez (the transformed into apartments, sweeping In 1986, the new archaeological museum present-day Cimiez hospital) while S. M. grounds parcelled up into lots, and the was inaugurated on a site close-by, while the Biasini built the Excelsior Hôtel Regina breaking up of villas, often stripped of expanded and renovated Musée Matisse [12], an immense 400-room luxury hotel their original embellishments. A number opened its doors once more in 1993. overlooking a sweeping garden with the of residential apartment blocks were built A beacon of culture thanks to its museums sea as a backdrop. Designed to keep the and exhibitions, Cimiez is also famed [15] May festivities in the garden at the Arènes during the 1960s and 1970s. Numerous Photo City of Nice Queen and her escort in Nice, and to lure public buildings retain memories of the for its concerts and shows. Operas and service Patrimoine historique

14, rue Jules Gilly - 06364 Nice cedex 4 century), the present-day Matisse museum. Photo City of Nice. th www.nice.fr Cover : The trompe l’œil façade of the Villa Gubernatis (17 The trompe l’œil façade of the Villa Cover :