Nice, the crossroads of Mediterranean cultures, extends along the superb Bay of Angels. It is a dynamic metropolis and the 5th largest city in France and the capital of the Côte d’Azur.

Greeks, Catalans, Angevins, House of Savoie...they all fought for her...but finally it was reintegrated into France in 1860...

Webcam de Nice
http://weblive-tourisme.com/

Météo Nice
http://www.meteorologic.net/meteo-france/Nice_1945.html

Map of the town

                         


 Nice, the crossroads of Mediterranean cultures, extends along the superb Bay of Angels. It is a dynamic metropolis and the 5th largest city in France and the capital of the Côte d’Azur.

In the lesser Paleolithic age, hunters camped on its beach, at Terra Amata. In the first millennium B.C., oppidum dwellings were created in the hills around the area. Many of the region’s villages were created in this way.But it was the Greeks from Massalia, now known as Marseilles, who formed the community of Nikaïa in the 4th century.

These people formed a coalition with the Romans against the Ligurians, who regularly launched their attacks in the area. The Romans settled here and formed Cemenelum, ancient Cimiez, a town that became the administrative center of the region, placed under the authority of a procurator who was also responsible for the cities of Vence ( cf Saint Paul), Senez and Castellane.

         
                                                        Nice Cimiez

The city developed around the castrum, and later around a cathedral. In the 12th century, this city became an urban republic administered by consuls. Cimiez was gradually abandoned in favor of Nice and its port.In the 13th century, the city was administered by the Catalonian Counts (see Catalonia), and in particular Raymond Bérenger the 5th. I

t was Charles of Anjou, Count of Provence and brother of St. Louis who took over from these Catalonian Counts. He expanded the city so that it incorporated some communities located on today’s border with Italy. Provence experienced in the 14th century a period of upheaval. The region was pillaged by bandits, ravaged by the plague, and Provence struggled to find its footing.

What’s more, the cities on the coast harbored Italian families fleeing their homes because of conflicts with the Hohenstoffen family. Such was the case of the Grimaldis who arrived in this region and settled in particular in Cagnes and Monaco. 

       
                                                 Franciscan monatery, Nice Cimiez

France began to seek to regain this territory, and it was in this context that the wars to succeed Queen Joan began. She had chosen Louis of Anjou as her successor, bucking therefore her promise to Charles de Duras, who from that day forward had but one idea: to seek vengeance.
A scission developed between the supporters of Charles de Duras and the supporters of Louis. But Anjou’s victory (for the partisans of Louis) obliged Nice to surrender and to place itself under the authority of the House of Savoy (1388) and its Count Amédée the 7th, also known as Amédée the Red.

One of the descendants of the Grimaldi family who settled in Beuil played an important role in this capitulation because he wanted to grant access to the sea to the Sardinian States of Savoy, Piedmont, Sardinia and the County of Nice. He was rewarded by obtaining territories. One of his descendants, Annibal Grimaldi  de Beuil, governor of the County of Nice, negotiated to try to achieve independence for Nice. For his efforts, he was strangled and what’s more, his property was confiscated.

Sovereigns of Savoy, the Princes of France bore the title of Count, and then Duke of Savoy and Prince of Piedmont. In the end, they claimed the title of King of Sardinia beginning in 1720.In the middle of the 16th century, Europe was being torn apart because of two personalities: the Germanic Emperor, Charles the 5th and the French King, Francis the 1st. 

It was Charles the 5th who held the reins and the Frenchman struggled to resist. It was in Nice that they signed in 1538 the “Peace Treaty of Nice”, under the leadership of Pope Paul the 3rd, who for the occasion transferred the papal seat to the Convent of the Holy Cross.This peace would not last because Francis the 1st, incensed by the power of Charles the 5th, signed an accord with Suleiman. 

                                     

Its goal was to enable the French to reclaim the Italian states and for the Turks to take over Spanish trading posts. This Franco-Turkish treaty ultimately led to the two powers’ siege of Nice and the wintering of Barbarossa in Nice in 1543-1544.From the end of the 16th century, the capital of the Sardinian States was transferred from Chambéry to Turin. Duke Emmanuel-Philibert imposed the use of Italian as his states’ official language.

But the inhabitants of Nice would not tolerate this policy, and they continued to speak “Nissart,” the coastal dialect, or “Gavouot” the language of the high valleys.The region was of high strategic value, and it often came under attack by the French who sought to regain control.

With the Duke of Savoy positioned against Louis the 11th during the Succession War in Spain, Nice was invaded by the French and Louis the 14th had the Château of Nice razed to the ground in 1706.After the Revolution, a period which had generated French Army careers like that of Masséna and which had transformed the County of Nice into a French department, Nice returned to the bosom of the House of Savoy.

People began to accept French as the official language, granting it a status equal to that of Italian. The House of Savoy, hoping to extend itself to the East into the regions of Venice and Lombardy, entered into war against Austria in 1859.

Napoleon the 3rd supported these efforts and in return he secured the right to annex Nice and Savoy to France, subject to popular approval. The 1860 plebiscite was a success. Both provinces were incorporated into France in that year.