Nice Hotels

City (1990 pop. 345,674), capital of Alpes-Maritimes dept., SE France, on the Mediterranean Sea. Nice is the most famous resort on the French Riviera. Although the economy depends mainly on the tourist trade, the electronics industry as well as other manufactures are important. The old port of Nice handles both commercial fishing and passenger service to Corsica. The new port, west of the city, engages in more commercial shipping. Nice also has one of France's major airports. There are several churches dating from the 12th through the 17th cent. The Carnival of Nice marks the height of the city's festival season.
Probably a Greek colony (Nikaia, or Nicaea in Latin) established in the 5th cent. B.C., Nice became an episcopal see in the 4th cent. A.D. It was pillaged and burned by Muslim forces in 859 and 880. In the 13th and 14th cent. the city belonged to the counts of Provence and Savoy. In 1543 the united forces of Francis I and Barbarossa attacked and burned Nice. It was annexed to France in 1793, restored to Sardinia in 1814, and again ceded to France in 1860 after a plebiscite. At the beginning of the French Revolution the city was a haven for Royalist émigrés. Its popularity as a resort began in the late 18th century, increasing with the building of roads in the 1820s and the arrival of the railroad in 1864. At first a retreat for royals and aristocrats, the city became a middle class resort as accessibility to it grew. Nice was claimed and occupied by Mussolini during World War II.

Nice (Nicaea) has been 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 until 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.

Distant viewIn 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 until 1814; but after that date it reverted to Sardinia.

Benedictine Abbey of St Pons, founded 778, rebuilt in the 11th century: A Romanesque abbey with a Baroque belltowerBy 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 and has a railway station.

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), nationalist revolutionary 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), Grand Prix 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-Pierre Mocky, Actor and Filmmaker
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

Night panorama from the Mont Alban