What to See in Nice - Top Sights and Attractions

Museum in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France. The Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, also called Villa Île-de-France, is a French seaside villa located at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the French Riviera. Designed by the French architect Aaron Messiah, it was built between 1907 and 1912 by Baroness Béatrice de Rothschild.

A member of the Rothschild banking family and the wife of the banker Baron Maurice de Ephrussi, Béatrice de Rothschild built her rose-colored villa on a promontory on the isthmus of Cap Ferrat overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The Baroness filled the mansion with antique furniture, Old Master paintings, sculptures, objets d'art and assembled an extensive collection of rare porcelain. The gardens are classified by the Ministry of Culture as one of the Remarkable Gardens of France, whilst the villa itself has been classified as a monument historique since 1996.

Upon her death in 1934, the Baroness donated the property and its collections to the Académie des Beaux-Arts division of the Institut de France. It is now open to the public.^[1]

19th-century Byzantine chapel and gardens. The St Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral, Nice is an Eastern Orthodox cathedral located in the French city of Nice. Property of the Russian Federation, it is recognized as a national monument of France, and it currently belongs to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. It is the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedral in Western Europe.

The cathedral was opened in 1912, thanks to the generosity of Russia's Tsar Nicholas II. From 1931 until 15 December 2011 (after a longstanding legal dispute over ownership was resolved), the parish that occupied the cathedral was part of the Paris-based Patriarchal Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe under the jurisdiction of the Church of Constantinople. After 2011, following a final ruling by France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, the cathedral was declared to be property of the Russian state, and the congregation came under the jurisdiction of the Korsun diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.^[5]

The Castle of Nice was a military citadel. Built at the top of a hill, it stood overlooking the bay of Nice from the 11th century to the 18th century. It was besieged several times, especially in 1543 and in 1691, before it was taken by French troops in 1705 and finally destroyed in 1706 by command of Louis XIV.

Nowadays, Castle Hill is used as a park. It's the most famous public garden in Nice, and a "must see" place for the numerous tourists who visit the city. It offers many amazing panoramas, and provides a beautiful view all day long from sunrise to sundown, highlighting various landscapes depending on where one looks: the Harbor at sunrise, the Promenade des Anglais at sundown. That's why Castle Hill is called "the cradle of the sun".^[8]

Neighborhood in Nice, France. Cimiez is an upper class neighborhood in Nice, southern France. The area contains the Musée Matisse and the ruins of Cemenelum, capital of the Ancient Roman province Alpes Maritimae on the Ligurian coast. Cemenelum was an important rival of Nice, continuing to exist as a separate city till the time of the Lombard invasions. The ruins include an arena, amphitheater, thermal baths, and paleochristian basilica.

During the Belle Epoque, Cimiez became a favourite holiday resort of European royalty: Victoria, Edward VII, George V, and Leopold II stayed in Cimiez.

Close to the ruins is the Excelsior Régina Palace where Queen Victoria spent part of her long visits to the French Riviera.

From 1974 to 2010, the Nice Jazz Festival was held on the grounds of the Roman Ruins in July each year (since 2011 the festival moved to the Place Masséna).

Also here can be found the Cimiez Monastery and church that have been used by the Franciscan friars since the 16th century. The church with a baroque altar from the seventeenth century and a marble cross from 1477 houses the paintings Pietà (triptych from 1475), Crucifixion (1512) and Deposition (1515) by the Italian medieval artist Ludovico Brea. On display are also more than 300 documents and works of art from the 15th to 18th centuries. Buried in the cemetery near the monastery are the painters Henri Matisse and Raoul Dufy, alongside the winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize for Literature, Roger Martin du Gard.

Cimiez contains an important Jewish population (around 20%).^[9]

Hotel in Nice, France. The Place Masséna is a historic square in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France. It was named for André Masséna. Its layout was designed by Joseph Vernier in 1843-1844.

The Place Masséna is the main square of the city. Before the Paillon River was covered over, the Pont-Neuf was the only practicable way between the old town and the modern one. The square was thus divided into two parts (North and South) in 1824. With the demolition of the Masséna Casino in 1979, the Place Masséna became more spacious and less dense and is now bordered by red ochre buildings of Italian architecture.

The recent rebuilding of the tramline gave the square back to the pedestrians, restoring its status as a real Mediterranean square. It is lined with palm trees and stone pines, instead of being the rectangular roundabout of sorts it had become over the years. Since its construction, the Place Masséna has always been the spot for great public events. It is used for concerts, and particularly during the summer festivals, the Corso carnavalesque (carnival parade) in February, the military procession of 14 July (Bastille Day) or other traditional celebrations and banquets.

The Place Masséna is a two-minute walk from the Promenade des Anglais, old town, town centre, and Albert I Garden (Jardin Albert Ier). It is also a large crossroads between several of the main streets of the city: avenue Jean Médecin, avenue Félix Faure, boulevard Jean Jaurès, avenue de Verdun and rue Gioffredo.^[10]

Art museum with works by Rodin and Sisley. The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice in Nice, France at 33 av. des Baumettes was built in the former private mansion built in 1878 by the Russian Princess, Elizaveta Vasilievna Kochubey. Named for the artist Jules Chéret who lived and worked in Nice during his final years, the museum opened as the "Palais des Arts Jules Chéret" on 7 January 1928.

The museum houses a collection of art spanning the past four centuries. There are paintings by Chéret and other artists who lived and worked on the French Riviera, such as Alexis Mossa, and his son Gustav-Adolf Mossa, who for many years were curators of the museum. The small museum has sculptures by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, François Rude, Michel de Tarnowsky and Auguste Rodin, plus ceramic pieces by Pablo Picasso. Some of the paintings are from:

• Marie Bashkirtseff
• Pierre Bonnard
• Jan Brueghel the Elder
• Bronzino
• Benjamin Constant
• Kees van Dongen
• Raoul Dufy
• Jean-Honoré Fragonard
• Marie Laurencin
• Luc-Olivier Merson
• Édouard Vuillard

Performing arts theater in Nice, France. Palais Nikaïa is an indoor concert hall and multi-purpose facility located in Nice, France. It opened on 4 April 2001, and is located five minutes' drive from Côte d'Azur International Airport.

On its own, Palais Nikaïa has seats for between 1,500 and 6,250 persons depending upon configuration, with an upwards maximum of 9,000 capacity including those standing. However, in a unique arrangement, it is located next to the outdoor Stade Charles-Ehrmann, with sliding glass doors to operate between them, and the two in combination can be used to host very large concerts with up to 50,000 or more in attendance.

Depeche Mode performed at the concert hall on May 4, 2013, during their Delta Machine Tour, in front of a sold-out crowd of 9,904 people.

In addition to concerts, Palais Nikaïa can host variety shows, sporting events, conventions.^[18]

Towering Gothic 1860s cathedral. The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Nice is a Roman Catholic basilica situated on the Avenue Jean Médecin in the centre of Nice, in France. It is built in the Neo-Gothic architectural tradition.

The basilica, built between 1864 and 1868, was designed by Louis Lenormand and is the largest church in Nice, but is not the cathedral of the city.

Inspired by Angers Cathedral, it is built in the Gothic style. Its construction was motivated by a desire to add French architecture to the city following the acquisition of the County of Nice by France from the Kingdom of Sardinia; at the time Gothic buildings were considered to be characteristically French. Its most prominent features are two square towers 65 m high, which dominate the east front together with a large rose window featuring scenes of the Assumption of Mary.

On 29 October 2020, three people were killed at the church in an act of Islamic terrorism. The suspect was identified as a 21 year old Tunisian illegal immigrant, who had reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" while holding a Quran.^[23]

Sculpture by Bernar Venet. Neuf lignes obliques is a steel monument on the Promenade des Anglais, by French artist Bernar Venet. It was commissioned to mark the 150th anniversary of the 1860 annexation of the County of Nice by France.

The sculpture is made of nine steel beams, 30 metres long, which meet at their top. As the name implies the beams are inclined at an oblique angle. The sculpture is made of 65 tonnes of corten steel, set on a 130 tonne concrete foundation.

Neuf lignes obliques is between the George Pompidou esplanade, a square on the south side of Vieux-Nice, and the Promenade des Anglais on Nice's Mediterranean coast.

The Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, commissioned it to symbolise the nine valleys of the old County of Nice as well as the surrounding mountains pointing to the sea. The sculpture was inaugurated on 31 May 2010 and moved 10m to its current site in 2012.^[25]

Pyramid in Falicon, France. The Falicon pyramid is a monument located at a rural site near the town of Falicon, on the French Riviera, near Nice.

It is constructed above a karstic cave known as the "Cave of the Bats" (Occitan: Bauma des Ratapignata) and is one of the few pyramids in Europe. The pyramid is constructed of small, irregularly shaped stones, possesses a fairly acute angle of inclination, and is in a partly ruined condition. While most of its upper section is missing, the lower section is reasonably well preserved.

The pyramid's purpose and exact origins are unknown. Though it had been suggested that it may have been constructed by Roman legionaries involved in Egyptian cult practices, more recent research indicated that it was actually built between 1803 and 1812, i.e. during the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte after the 1798-1801 French campaign in Egypt and Syria.^[32]