French Riviera – Nice earns UNESCO world heritage status
French Riviera News –
The City of Nice, the capital of the French Riviera has just been added to the prestigious UNESCO World Heritage List.
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee chose Nice on Tuesday 27th July, together with a number of new international sites for their cultural, historical or scientific significance.
With close to one million inhabitants, greater Nice is the second-largest city on the Southern coast after Marseille, and the fifth-biggest in the country. Nice joins more than 40 world heritage sites across France which include the banks of the river Seine in Paris, the Amiens cathedral, the Mont Saint Michel and stretches of the Loire Valley.
The news came as a huge relief to Mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi, who says he and his team have worked for more than a decade to restore the beautiful city to its former glory. “Since 2008, we have worked tirelessly to bring to life everything we had forgotten: the beauty of our facades, our buildings, our diverse places of worship, our gardens, our landscapes, our public spaces,” he told the Nice Matin newspaper. “We have worked to give back to our city what had enabled it to seduce the most prestigious politicians, the most inventive business leaders, the most daring artists from all over for nearly two centuries.”
Mayor Estrosi went on to say “The history of Nice, which is at the same time deeply rooted and open, Mediterranean and Alpine, European and cosmopolitan, has produced an architecture and a French Riviera landscape that is unique, a model for many other cities in the world,”
The Financial Times also published an interesting article last week, all about Nice and the buoyant property market there, the article includes comments from Home Hunts and some of our clients, it also includes two stunning properties – read it here
The natural environment and the mild Mediterranean climate on the French Riviera came to the attention of the English upper classes in the second half of the 18th century, when an increasing number of aristocratic families took to spending their winters there. In 1931, the city’s main seaside promenade, the Promenade des Anglais, was inaugurated by Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, and was visited by the likes of Queen Victoria and her son Edward VII, who spent winters there, and Nice-born Henry Cavendish, who discovered hydrogen.
The city has also inspired large numbers of notable painters including Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse. Nice has a rich architectural heritage with several palaces and mansions across the city, as well as churches in the Baroque style. During the Belle Époque, the city was enriched with numerous villas and hotels, including the famous Negresco Hotel on the seafront.
Mayor Estrosi says the World Heritage classification has given him more confidence to push forward with having Nice chosen as the European Capital of Culture 2028.
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