History and civilization
The Cote d’Azur has been inhabited since prehistoric times, but the term was coined in 1887 by Stéphen Liégeard, azure being a heraldic term for blue.
From Prehistory to the Roman period
- A paleolithic site of a nomad people dating to 950,000 B.C. was discovered in the cave of Vallonet, near Roquebrune-Cap Martin, with stones and bones of animals, including bovines, rhinoceros, and hippopotomus. Other sites were found at the cave of L’Escale, near Saint-Estève Janson (600,000 B.C.), and at Terra Amata (400,OOO BC), where a fireplace was discovered, one of the oldest in Europe.
- The Cosquer Cave, an undersea cave between Cassis and Marseille discovered in 1991, has the oldest man-made art in the region - drawings of bisons, seals, horses and penguins,and outlines of human hands, dating to between 27,000 and 19,000 B.C
- Beginning in the 7th century BC, Greek sailors from Asia Minor began to visit and then build trading posts (emporia) along the Cote d’Azur.
- The first known settlement was at Massalia (now Marseille), with colonists from Phocaea, modern-day Foça in Turkey. Other emporia were started at Olbia (Saint-Pierre de l’Almanarre, near Hyeres); Antipolis (Antibes); Nicoea (Nice); and Tauroentum and Rhodanousia (Arles).
- At the beginning of the 4th century B.C. the Ligurians, a nomadic Celtic people, invaded the south of France and travelled all the way to Ancient Rome. The Ligurian tribes of the Oxybii and Deceates settled in what is now the Alpes-Maritimes and the Var, building hilltop forts and settlements.
- In 181 B.C., a Roman army defeated the Ligurians at Genoa; in 154 B.C., the Consul Optimius defeated the Oxybii and the Deceates, who had besieged Antibes and Nice; and in 125 B.C., another Roman army crushed a confederation of Celtic tribes and their allies.
- In 102 B.C. the Roman general Marius defeated a new invasion of Cimbres and Teutons, and began to build a system of Roman roads through the region to facilitate the movement of troops, as well as trade, with Rome.
- In 8 B.C. the Emperor Augustus built an imposing trophy monument at La Turbie to mark the pacification of the region. Roman towns, monuments and amphitheaters were built all throughout the region, and many still survive: the amphitheater at Cimiez, above Nice; the amphitheater and Roman walls at Fréjus; and farther inland in Provence, the theater in Orange; the amphitheaters in Arles and Avignon: and the triumphal arch at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.
Up to the Middle Ages
- In the middle of the 3rd century, Germanic peoples began to invade the region, and Roman power began to weaken.
- In the same period, Christianity became a powerful force in the region. The first cathedrals were built in the 4th century, and bishoprics were established in Arles (254 A.D.); Marseille (314 A.D.); Fréjus (end of the 4th century); Cimiez and Vence (439 B.C.); Antibes (442 A.D.) and Toulon (451 A.D.)
- The fall of the Western Roman Empire in the first half of the 5th century was followed by invasion of Provence by the Visigoths, the Burgundians and the Ostrogoths.
- Some peace was restored to the coast by the establishment in 879 of a new kingdom of Provence, ruled first by the Bosonide dynasty (879-1112); then by the Catalans (1112-1246), and finally by the Angevins (1246-1483).
- In the 13th century, another powerful political force appeared on the Cote d’Azur, the House of Grimaldi. Descended from a Genoese nobleman who was expelled from Genoa by his rivals in 1271, the members of the different branches of the Grimaldis took power in Monaco, Antibes and Nice, and built castles at Grimaud, Cagnes-sur-Mer and Antibes. The present Prince of Monaco is a descendant of the Grimaldis.
- In 1388, the city of Nice and its surrounding territory, from the mouth of the Var River to the Italian border, was separated from Provence and came under the protection of the House of Savoy.
Until present
- Until the end of the 18th century the Cote d’Azur was a remote and impoverished region of France, known mostly for fishing, olive groves and the making of perfume.
- A new phase of the history of the French Riviera began when the coast became a fashionable health resort for the British upper classes in the late eighteenth century.
- In 1864, five years after Nice became part of France, the first railroad arrived there, making Nice and the rest of the Riviera accessible to visitors from all over Europe. One hundred thousand visitors arrived in 1865. By 1874 the foreign colony in Nice, mostly British, had grown to 25,000.
- In 1856, the Prince of Monaco, Charles III, began constructing a casino in Monaco, which, to avoid criticism by the church, was formally called a health spa.
- By the end of the nineteenth century, the Riviera also began to attract painters, who appreciated the climate, the clear light, and the bright colors. Auguste Renoir settled in Cagnes-sur-Mer, and Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso made their homes on the Riviera.
- After World War I, when Europe was recovering from the war and the American dollar was strong, more Americans, including writers and artists, began coming to the Riviera.
- While American visitors were largely responsible for making summer the high season on the Riviera, a French fashion designer, Coco Chanel, was responsible for making sunbathing fashionable. She acquired a striking tan during the summer of 1923, and tans immediately became the fashion in Paris.
- During World War II, St. Tropez was badly damaged by German mines.
- The Cannes Film Festival was launched in September 1946, marking the return of French cinema to world screens.
- Today the French Riviera is not just an important tourist destination, but also a center for education, high technology, and scientific research. Nice is the fifth largest city in France, and is home of the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis, with its own large technology and research park.