::: nice – a potted history

the name traces back to the greek ‘nikaia’ (city of victory)

nice has been created and shaped by successive waves of foreigners who occupied the eastern end of the bay of angels facing antibes

the romans had their time in nice (as they did in most of europe)

after their decline and fall, the city became part of provence until 1388

then the savoies of switzerland and northern italy took over

in 1860 a long debated deal was finally struck: napolean III repatriated nice to france in exchange for military help for italy in it’s own creation (vs austria)

mussolini’s italians occupied nice from november 1942

they were replaced by german troops in september 1943

allied forces liberated the city on august 28 1944