Ports ‘Sites’ Collection Espite Being a Coastal Town, Nice Was Nothing More Than a Swampy Plain
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NICE’S Ports ‘Sites’ collection espite being a coastal town, Nice was nothing more than a swampy plain. does not enjoy the same maritime The hollower Les Ponchettes cove served Dreputation as its Mediterranean as an acceptable haven, featuring a river sisters. as well as a beach on which ships could Yet over the centuries, the city has be dragged into the dry. On the Castle managed to use its narrow coastline to hill, fortifications were built to protect its advantage in developing a port that the commercial establishments and a was first founded on the Les Ponchettes dwelling that is now located around the site before being moved to Lympia. Saint-Jacques church. It was here, then, at Les Ponchettes, that Nice’s first port emerged, lasting from Antiquity to the The Greek shore Middle Ages. in Les Ponchettes The Greeks of Phocaea (the present- THE ST-LAMBERT day Marseille) [1] founded a trading post th COVE AT LES named Nikaïa around the 5 century BC, [3] Victor Amadeus II sets off from Nice on 14 June 1689. nestled at the foot of the Castle hill. The Oil on canvas, artist unknown. POncHETTES Geneva, Fondazione Umberto II e Maria Josè di Savoia. site encompassed three crucial elements for all Greek settlements: a shelter, a river Christianised by Saint Reparata whose and defensive structures, all positioned miraculous boat set sail from Palestine pontoons were used to unload large dyke that was swept away on numerous in very close proximity to the sea. The and was said to have washed up on this shipments. In 1264, traces of a dockyard occasions, the Saint-Lambert cove name of the river is one of the most likely shingle beach, Nikaïa became Nice. The to the west (close to the present-day remained a fairly untouched shingle sources of the name Nikaïa (Nice). ancient port took on the name of Saint- Passage Gassin) were unearthed. To the beach, a marina as it was called in Lambert cove, a name that may have east, at the site of the old Senate, was Nice’s local dialect and in a number In Antiquity, no point on Nice’s coast come from a nearby chapel that has better brought together these elements the Gabelle: one of the port’s primary of Latin tongues: a word used to refer since vanished. The boats were hauled activities was the importing of salt. In to a structure-free section of the coast than the Les Ponchettes cove. The onto the shingle beach [2] and the ships Villefranche harbour was indefensible the centre lay the hustle and bustle of designed to host merchant, fishing and unloaded by transhipment. In the event the covered fish market, the Pescarìa. war vessels. This shoreline was made and was lacking substantial water of sea storms or heavy winds, boats took supply, while the future site of Lympia In 1295, the count of Provence founded even narrower when the city wall was shelter in the Villefranche harbour. Villefranche, a village on which he moved south to allow room for the city to The counts of Provence, lords of Nice bestowed a duties and tax exemption, expand and to create the Cours Saleya th since the 9 century, began taking an thus consolidating the harbour’s role as (1577) inside the city walls. Savoy’s interest in developing the city’s status as a complementary and sometimes rival maritime ambitions were illustrated by a port. We know that removable wooden port facility. The entire system lasted the construction of Villefranche’s inner until the mid-18th century. harbour reserved for galleys from the war fleet under Emmanuel-Philibert (1553- 1580) and his son Charles-Emmanuel I THE LES (1580-1630). POncHETTES In order to promote exchange, these princes undertook vast and expensive MARINA works to build the royal road linking Nice to Turin via the Col de Tende (1616). In 1388, the county of Nice fell into the They also eradicated customs duties in [1] Kybele at sea. Replica of an old 5th century bireme. It set House of Savoy’s hands, in which Nice Nice by creating a free-port zone (1612). sail from Foça (Phocaea) in 2009 and arrived in Marseille [2] View of Nice, Nice’s castle and the Mont-Alban fort. th and Villefranche were the only maritime two months later by cabotage. Watercolour drawing, late 17 century (close-up). Yet the absence of a deep-water port Photo www.cabotages.fr French national library. ports. Despite the construction of a remained a major issue [3]. PLANS FOR A NEW CITY IN LYMPIA A port needs a number of structures and facilities. The engineers De Vincenti, Borra, De Robilante and Michaud succeeded one another over the course of half a century, developing and improving the port of Lympia and planning a new district and links with the city. The southern spur of the Castle hill was carved up, allowing the Route de Rauba-Capéu to be opened up, linking the old port with the new. Along the Les Ponchettes cove, on the site of [5] The port of Lympia under construction. the old city walls, little houses were built Anonymous drawing circa 1751 (close-up). on the terraces to house fishermen, Nice, Bibliothèque de Cessole library. workers who made a living from the sea filling in with sand, difficult to enter, the and storehouses: a public promenade [4] Study to locate a port close to Nice. Map attributed to Vanello, circa 1610. dyke too low and short. Throughout its was laid down on the roofs. To the north, Vincennes, SHAT. history and despite considerable work the new district began taking shape along carried out, Nice’s port revealed itself a geometric model from 1781 on. It was In the 17th century, over ten projects the other side of the Castle. It was to to be unsuited to growing traffic and linked to the Route de Turin by the Rue were developed for Les Ponchettes [4]: take a century and a half to complete, suffered from the competition provided Ségurane and was structured around two the installation of a dyke parallel to the because the work to be carried out here by its two powerful neighbours, Genoa major squares: the Place Victor (today’s coast, the founding of a basin, either by was ambitious and costly: the swampy and Marseille. Place Garibaldi) completed in 1790 and using the existing cove or by digging into Lympia plain had to be dug out behind the marshes at the Paillon river mouth, a dyke to create one, and then two, and the construction of quays where the basins, a dockyard, quays, storehouses city wall and the Cours Saleya stood. and an entire district designed to serve None of these projects were brought to it. In other words, the project required the fruition. In the mid-18th century, when the building of an artificial port. Mediterranean had become more stable and maritime trade was flourishing, the Work on the dyke and on digging out dukes of Savoy, now the Kings of Sardinia the first basin began in 1750 and was (1720), had a growing need for a port in completed in 1752 [5]. A large part of the Nice. Turin decided to abandon the Les workforce was provided by slaves from Ponchettes site, deemed too unsuitable. the labour camp (li galera, lou barrilonc) established in the port in 1750. The sail boats had become too professional to A NEW PORT IN use galley slaves, and labour camps LYMPIA were being built in many ports (Toulon, 1748). Slabs from the destroyed Castle Following his engineers’ recommendations, and the quarry at the current site of King Charles-Emmanuel III chose in 1749 the Monument aux Morts provided the [6] Nice’s port in Lympia circa 1782. to build a more modern port, larger and raw materials. Yet the port was already Watercolour engraving by Albanis Beaumont. better sheltered in the Lympia plain on emerging as being too small, quickly A historic and picturesque journey…, Geneva, 1785. Simultaneously, in Les Ponchettes, the the port expanded its oil, wine, grain, old Terrace was added to with a new coal and construction materials trading Terrace (1850), becoming home to the activity. Lympia was first and foremost a new Pescarìa (today’s Galerie de la port for importing merchandise designed Marine) [7]. to supply a city in full growth. The dyke, topped with a lighthouse, was prolonged Yet in eradicating port duties in 1851 and by 108 metres in 1872 followed by 235 in giving preference to Genoa, business metres in 1908. in Nice was significantly tempered, thus To gain space, the basins were stretched contributing in large part to Nice locals’ out to sea. In 1912, the Bassin du disenchantment with the House of Savoy. Commerce was opened and regularly Once the county of Nice had been expanded in order to host larger and annexed to France in 1860, French civil larger ships, freighters, ferries and finally engineering and funding allowed for the high-speed ships [8]. completion of the large inner basin that had crept over buildings that required Since the 1960s, as merchandise expropriating and demolishing, as was the transporting continues to fall, tourism case with the building in which Giuseppe in Nice’s port has been increasingly Garibaldi was born. Dredged, fitted with consolidated with sailing, cruises and steam handling facilities and linked to maritime lines stopping here on their way [7] The Ponchettes and the Terrasses from the Route de Raubà-Capéu. the railway via the tram line in 1909, to Corsica.