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NICE, in Italian Nizza, the chief town of
the department of the Alpes-Maritimes and the seat of a
bishop, is a large, cheerful, and somewhat noisy town,
magnificently situated on the Baie des Anges at the mouth of
the Paillon, backed by a crescent of hills, beyond which
rises a receding amphitheatre of impressive mountains.
Although of no
great interest in itself, its delightful winter climate and
the ample, not to say luxurious, provision for the
accommodation and amusement of visitors attract many
thousands of winter residents, and Nice vies with Monte
Carlo as the chief pleasure-city of the Riviera.
The environs are
very beautiful, and its situation, its communications and
its variety of hotel-accomodations, render Nice an admirable
centre whence to explore the Côte d'Azur in both directions
or to undertake expeditions among the high mountains behind.
The OLD TOWN,
the rnost Interesting part of Nice, lies between the Paillon,
the Château, and the sea; it's labyrinth of narrow streets,
picturesque and animated, have something Italian in their
general character.
The much larger
MODERN TOWN with its promenades on the sea-front, its
handsome streets with attractive shops, and its fine hotels
and cafés occupies the flat ground to the W, while on the
hills above are opulent villas and more hotels.
To the East are
the fashionable Carabacel and Gimiez, to the W. the less
pretentious regions of St~Philippe and Magnan ; to the N.
the populous quarters of Si-Maurice, St-Sylvestre, and St-Bartélemy.
The industrial
quarters of St-Roch and St-Riquier lie on the left bank of
the Paillon, N. of the old town, and to the S.E rise the
wooded slopes of Montboron, with its rich villas.
History
Nice, the ancient Nicea
or Nikoea the name of which is commonly but without authority
derived from ' Mike,' the Greek word for victor , was founded
by the Phocaeans of Marseilles, in the 3rd or 4th cent. B.C.
It was on the appeal of this town for protection against the Ligurians that the Romans first intervened in the affairs of
Gaul (164 B.C.), and for some time it was eclipsed
by the Roman foundation of Cemenclum, (Gimiez).
Nice, however,
seems to have had a bishop in the 4th cent. A.D. and In the
early middle ages attained some commercial * importance though
it suffered much
from the raids of pirates, the rivalry of the counts of
Provence and Savoy, and the feuds of the great families, such
as the Lascaris of Tenda and the Grimaldi of Monaco.
In 1388
Nice placed itself in the hands of the princes, afterwards
dukes of Savoy, and thenceforward it was a frequent victim in
the contests of France with the Empire and the rulers of N.
Italy for the possession of Provence.
In 1543, during the wars of Francis I and Charles V,
it was besieged by the French, assisted by a Turkish fleet
under the notorious corsair Barbarossa ; and though the first
assault was repulsed largely owing to the courageous energy of
a laundress named Catherine Segurance one of those heroines in
humble life who have appeared in French history at various
times in similar circumstances the city was taken and sacked.
The French captured it again in 1600, in 1691, in 1696, and in
1705 when the Duke of Berwick led the siege, and the country
of Nice changed masters several times again before the Peace
of Aix-la-Chapelle restored it to the House of Savoy, then
Kings of Sardinia. In 1792 Nice was occupied and annexed to
the French Republic, but in 1814 it reverted to Sardinia. In
1860 it was resigned by treaty, along with Savoy, to France.
Among eminent Niçois are :
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The painters Lodovico Bran
(1443-c.1523), of the Ligurian school, and Carle Vanloo
(1705-65), son of a Dutch carpenter;
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Marshal Masséna
(1758-1817),
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Duc de Rivoli and Prince d'Essling; and Giuseppe
Garlbaldi (1807-82).
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Paganini (1784-1840), the violinist,
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Fromental Halévy (1799-1862), the composer,
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Paul Déroulède
(1846-1914), poet and politician, died at Nice,
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Léon
Gambetta (1838-82) is buried there, though his heart was taken
to the Panthéon in Paris in 1920,
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The Rue Smallest
commemorates the residence of Tobias Smollett in Nice in
1763-65.
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