Port Lympia

In front of you lies the harbour of Nice. The curious thing is that there was no sea here: the water fills an old marshy area that was dug out by hand at the foot of Castle Hill.

1A harbour for the kingdom

Until the 18th century, ships calling at Nice anchored off the beach or sheltered in neighbouring Villefranche. In 1748, King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia decided to give the city a proper harbour, and on 22 July 1750 the first caisson of the outer breakwater was sunk. Expansion work went on for more than a century and a half.

The name comes from the Lympia spring, which fed a small lake in this damp valley. A new, neatly planned district grew up around the basin: Place de l'Île-de-Beauté, formerly Place Cassini, with its arcades and red-ochre façades.

Garibaldi was born in 1807 in one of the houses facing the old harbour; it was demolished in the 19th century to make way for the port extension.

The church of Notre-Dame-du-Port, opened for worship in 1853, is dedicated to the Virgin, patron saint of sailors. Its Greek-temple front, the arcaded façades and the Truchi staircase have been listed historic monuments since 1991. Today, ferries leave from here for Corsica, the nearest land across the sea.

2What to look for

• The «pointus», the traditional painted wooden boats.
• Notre-Dame-du-Port, with its columned portico.
• The red façades of Place de l'Île-de-Beauté.