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KNOWLEDGE OF Nice
Nice was already in existence in prehistoric times, but we can only paint a detailed picture of its past from antiquity onwards. After many a century of commercial activity and invasion, Nice gradually began, in the 18th and 19th centuries, to take the shape we know today - as a city of major touristic import.
Nice is a very old lady indeed... 400,000 years ago man had already settled this "beloved land" to which the museum Terra Amata bears witness. Primitive settlers, the very first inhabitants of Nice, established themselves at the base of Mont-Boron, in a cave known as the Grotte du Lazaret, where they lived in the company of ibex, stags, oxen and elephants, and carved weapons out of the limestone rock.
Several thousand years elapsed in peaceful evolution, until Nice eventually gained its name in the 4th century BC when the Massaliotes won a memorable victory over the Barbarians on site. The victorious Greeks hailing from Marseilles (200km from Nice) named the colony founded on the shore Nikaia, which literally means "giver of victory." Being the closest port of call from the island of Cyrnos (present-day Corsica), it became a Massaliote beachhead as well as an important commercial trading post. The beginnings of the new town were established not at the foot of Mont-Boron, as in prehistoric times, but on the slopes of the Château hill.
At this time, Nice was a small stronghold which protected the port using her natural defences – the Colline du Château. The few hundred inhabitants were mainly merchants under the authority of magistrates nominated by Marseilles.
Roman occupation can be traced back to 14 BC – the start of the Roman Empire. At this time the Romans effectively built a second town, Cemenelum, on Cimiez hill. Once it had become the county seat for the Alpes-Maritimes military government, Cimiez quickly became a strategic centre. The lower parts of the town, close to the port and climbing the Château hillside, lived in the shadow of Cimiez for the next few centuries.
In the 6th century, Nikaia gained the upper hand over Cemenelum, which disappeared with the fall of the Roman Empire, while Nikaia, the low town, became part of the French empire, asserting its importance through maritime commerce.
Nice is a very old lady indeed... 400,000 years ago man had already settled this "beloved land" to which the museum Terra Amata bears witness. Primitive settlers, the very first inhabitants of Nice, established themselves at the base of Mont-Boron, in a cave known as the Grotte du Lazaret, where they lived in the company of ibex, stags, oxen and elephants, and carved weapons out of the limestone rock.
Several thousand years elapsed in peaceful evolution, until Nice eventually gained its name in the 4th century BC when the Massaliotes won a memorable victory over the Barbarians on site. The victorious Greeks hailing from Marseilles (200km from Nice) named the colony founded on the shore Nikaia, which literally means "giver of victory." Being the closest port of call from the island of Cyrnos (present-day Corsica), it became a Massaliote beachhead as well as an important commercial trading post. The beginnings of the new town were established not at the foot of Mont-Boron, as in prehistoric times, but on the slopes of the Château hill.
At this time, Nice was a small stronghold which protected the port using her natural defences – the Colline du Château. The few hundred inhabitants were mainly merchants under the authority of magistrates nominated by Marseilles.
Roman occupation can be traced back to 14 BC – the start of the Roman Empire. At this time the Romans effectively built a second town, Cemenelum, on Cimiez hill. Once it had become the county seat for the Alpes-Maritimes military government, Cimiez quickly became a strategic centre. The lower parts of the town, close to the port and climbing the Château hillside, lived in the shadow of Cimiez for the next few centuries.
In the 6th century, Nikaia gained the upper hand over Cemenelum, which disappeared with the fall of the Roman Empire, while Nikaia, the low town, became part of the French empire, asserting its importance through maritime commerce.
Chapi