English wintering made Nice la Belle a Riviera painters’ haven
Nice, prefecture of Alpes-Maritimes on France’s Côte d’Azur, nicknamed Nice la Belle, anchors an agglomeration of nearly one million across about 744 km². English aristocrats wintered there from the late 1700s; Terra Amata nearby shows fire use some 380,000 years ago.
Nice lies on the French Riviera between the Mediterranean and the foot of the Alps, about 13 km from Monaco and 30 km from the Italian border. It is the prefecture of Alpes-Maritimes and, after Marseille, the second-largest city both on France's Mediterranean coast and in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region. Its wider agglomeration holds nearly a million people over roughly 744 square kilometres, about the size of Singapore, and its airport is the region's main gateway.
Humans were here very early: the Terra Amata site within the agglomeration shows fire in use 380,000 years ago. Around 350 BC Greeks from Marseille founded a permanent town, Nikaia, named after Nike, goddess of victory. Its port and strategic position made it a prize that changed hands often. It belonged to Savoy from 1388, to the French First Republic from 1792 to 1815, then to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia until France annexed it in 1860. It was also the historic capital of the County of Nice.
From the second half of the 18th century, English aristocratic families began wintering here for the mild climate, and later Queen Victoria and Edward VII came too. The seafront Promenade des Anglais, named for those visitors, was reopened after refurbishment in 1931 by Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught. Russian nobility followed: the heir to the Russian throne, Nicholas Alexandrovich, died in Nice, and the Russian Orthodox Cemetery holds Tsar Alexander II's morganatic wife and White Army generals.
The light and clear air drew painters and sculptors such as Matisse, Chagall, Arman and Niki de Saint Phalle, commemorated in the Musee Marc Chagall, Musee Matisse and the fine arts museum. Nietzsche spent six winters here and wrote Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and Chekhov finished Three Sisters. UNESCO listed Nice as a World Heritage Site in 2021 for its history as a cosmopolitan winter resort. It has France's second-largest hotel capacity and draws four million tourists a year. Its unofficial anthem, Nissa La Bella by Menica Rondelly, gives the city its nickname.
Source: Nice
