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- This article is about the city. For other Nice articles, see Nice (disambiguation).
Nice (pronounced
[ni:s] as in "niece"; Italian Nizza, Provençal Niça or Nissa) is a city in Southern France located on the Mediterranean coast, between Cannes and Monaco. The city is a major tourist centre and a leading resort
on the French Riviera - Côte d'Azur.
Administration
Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur région, Nice is a
commune and the préfecture (administrative capital) of the Alpes-Maritimes département.
History
Nice (Nicaea) was founded about two thousand years ago by the Greeks of Marseille, and received the name of Nikaïa in honour of a victory over the
neighbouring Ligurians (Nike being the goddess of victory). It soon became one of the busiest trading stations on the Ligurian
coast; but as a city it had an important rival in the town of Cemenelum, which continued to exist till the time of the Lombard invasions, and has left its ruins at Cimiez, which is now a
quarter of Nice.
In the 7th century Nice joined the Genoese league formed by the towns of Liguria. In 729 it repulsed the Saracens; but in 859 and 880 they pillaged and burned it, and for the most of the 10th
century remained masters of the surrounding country.
During the Middle Ages Nice had its share in the wars and disasters of
Italy. As an ally of Pisa it was the enemy of
Genoa, and both the King of
France and the Emperor endeavoured to subjugate it; but in
spite of all it maintained its municipal liberties. In the course of the 13th and 14th centuries it fell more than once into the hands of the Counts of Provence; and at length in 1388 the commune placed itself under the protection of the Counts of Savoy.
The maritime strength of Nice now rapidly increased till it was able to cope with the Barbary pirates; the fortifications were largely extended and the roads
to the city improved. During the struggle between Francis I
and Charles V great damage was caused
by the passage of the armies invading Provence; pestilence and famine raged in the city for several years. It was in Nice that the two monarchs in 1538 concluded, through the mediation of Pope Paul III, a truce of ten years.
In 1543 Nice was attacked by the united forces of Francis I and Barbarossa; and, though the inhabitants repulsed the assault which succeeded the terrible bombardment, they were ultimately compelled to surrender, and Barbarossa was
allowed to pillage the city and to carry off 2,500 captives. Pestilence appeared again in 1550 and 1580.
In 1600 Nice was taken by the duke
of Guise. By opening the ports of the countship to all nations, and proclaiming full freedom of trade, Charles Emmanuel in 1626 gave a great stimulus to
the commerce of the city, whose noble families took part in its mercantile
enterprises. Captured by Catinat in 1691, Nice was restored to Savoy in 1696; but it was again besieged by the French in 1705, and in the following year
its citadel and ramparts were
demolished.
The treaty of Utrecht in 1713 once more gave the city back to Savoy; and in the peaceful years which followed the "new town"
was built. From 1744 till the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) the French and Spaniards
were again in possession. In 1775 the king of Sardinia destroyed all that remained of the ancient liberties of the commune. Conquered in 1792 by the armies of the French Republic,
the county of Nice continued to be part of France till 1814; but after that date it
reverted to Sardinia.
By a treaty concluded in 1860 between the Sardinian king and Napoleon III it was again transferred to France, and the cession was ratified by
over 25,000 electors out of a total of 30,700.
In the second half of the 20th century, Nice bore the influence of
mayor Jean Médecin (mayor from 1947 to 1965) and his son Jacques (mayor from 1966 to 1990). As the accusations of political
corruption grew, Jacques Médecin fled France in 1990 and was arrested in Uruguay in 1993, leading to his extradition in 1994. He was then convicted of several counts of corruption and associated crimes and sentenced to
prison.
Jacques Peyrat, the mayor
of Nice since 1995, is a member of the UMP party and former member
of the Front National.
In 2003, local head prosecutor
Éric de Montgolfier alleged that some judicial cases
involving local personalities had been suspiciously derailed by the local judiciary, which he suspected of having unhealthy
contacts, through Masonic lodges, with the very people that they are supposed
to prosecute or judge. A controversial official report stated that de Montgolfier had made unwarranted accusations.
Transportation
The city is served by Côte
d'Azur International Airport.
Miscellaneous
Births
Nice was the birthplace of:
- André Masséna (1758-1817), Duke of Rivoli, Prince of Essling, soldier in the armies of Napoleon and a Marshal of
France
- Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1885), guerrilla fighter
and Italy's most famous soldier of the Risorgimento
- Melchior de Vogüé (1848-1910), author
- Albert Calmette (1863-1933), physician, bacteriologist and immunologist
- Marcel Journet (1867-1933), tenor
- Robert Caesar Childers (1838-1876), British
Orientalist scholar
- René Dreyfus (1905-1993), driver
- Jean Behra (1921-1959), Formula One driver
- Simone Veil (born 1927), lawyer and politician
- Yves Klein (1928-1962), artist
- Christian Wolff (born 1934), American composer of experimental classical music
- Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (born
1940), author
- Jacques Toubon (born 1941,
politician
- Didier Van Cauwelaert (born 1960), author, winner of the 1994 Prix Goncourt
- Surya Bonaly (born 1973),
professional figure
skater
- Lise Darly (born 1981), singer,
selected to represent Monaco in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005
Reference
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