Place Garibaldi is defined by its ochre-yellow buildings, green shutters, and arcades that surround a central open space. Designed by architect Antoine Spinelli and completed in seventeen seventy-three, it is the oldest square in Nice. The…
The Italian Roots of Nice
This walking tour leads you through the ocher-washed plazas and Baroque landmarks of Vieux Nice, highlighting the architecture and monuments that reflect the city's long history as a Savoyard and Piedmontese stronghold. You will see how deeply Italian the city's soul remains, more than 160 years after becoming part of France.
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1. Place Garibaldi
2. Palais communal de Nice
The Palais communal sits on Place Saint-François, a square that became the city's administrative core in the sixteenth century. You can identify the building by its Baroque facade, designed by Giò Pietro Agliaudo in seventeen fifty-eight,…
3. Musée du Palais Lascaris
The Palais Lascaris is identified by a grand Baroque facade featuring white marble balconies on Rue Droite. Built in the middle of the seventeenth century for the Lascaris-Vintimille family, the residence stands as a prominent example of…
4. Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate de Nice
The Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate is recognizable by its dome, which is covered in shimmering, multi-colored glazed tiles that stand out above the rooftops of the old town. This seventeenth-century building, constructed between sixteen…
5. Paganini 1839-1840
Niccolò Paganini, the celebrated Italian violinist often called the Devil's Violinist, spent his final months in Nice, arriving here in eighteen thirty-nine after the financial ruin of his casino venture in Paris. Already weakened by years…
6. Sénat de Nice
The former Senate of Nice stands at the end of the Cours Saleya, identified by its three-story facade painted in a distinctive red. This building once served as the Sovereign Senate of the County of Nice, established in sixteen fourteen by…
7. Chapelle de la Miséricorde
The Chapelle de la Miséricorde stands on the Cours Saleya with a curved, Baroque façade that breaks from the straight lines typical of the surrounding old town. Built between seventeen forty-seven and seventeen seventy on the site of…
8. Palais de la Préfecture
The Palais de la Préfecture, also known as the Palace of the Kings of Sardinia, is a substantial government building in the heart of Old Nice. You can identify it by its classical façade and its position near the Palais de Justice.…
9. Place Masséna
Place Masséna is defined by its dramatic, black and white checkered pavement and the surrounding neoclassical buildings with their deep red ochre facades. Built between eighteen thirty-two and eighteen fifty, the square was designed to…