The building of the former Senate of Nice

Not far from the main noisy pedestrian street of Nice, Cours Saleya, there is not very perceptible ancient baroque building which previously housed the Senate.

In this house, a silent «witness» of the power and prosperity of the medieval Nice, the sovereign power administered once (since then the city has not yet become a «plaything» of great states). In this building on June 14, 1860 the annexation of Nice was also proclaimed by France.

The own the Senate appeared in Nice in 1614 thanks to Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy who went down in history as a diplomat, an energetic ruler and a warrior. (In fact, the Senate in his presence also had to perform the functions of the prefecture and the Supreme Court of the county).

In 1655, for the Senate in 1655-meters, next to the Chapel of the Holy Trinity and the Holy Shroud a building 3-floored was constructed (in the Genoa style, with arcades along lateral face and a large balcony). The president, the senators and the bailiffs were placed here.

When the «quiet» times ended and on September 28, 1792, the French revolutionary troops approached to Nice the officials stationed in the Senate ran away from the city.

The work of the Senate in Nice resumed only after the fall of the empire of Bonaparte in 1814. But since France has not lost its interest in the Côte d'Azur the secret negotiations of the Emperor Napoleon III with the King of Sardinia began. As a result, in 1860, they concluded, the Treaty of Turin according to which the Kingdom of Sardinia ceded the County of Nice to France (in exchange for a comprehensive assistance in the fight against Austria).

For the sake of «keeping up appearances» a plebiscite in which the inhabitants of Nice were given the opportunity to express their attitude to the transition to citizenship of France was even held. At that, the native of Nice, Giuseppe Garibaldi, actively campaigned the citizens to speak out against it, and to say «yes» they were asked by Victor Emmanuel II, the King of Sardinia. The local press also made its bit – 2 newspapers campaigned against the French nationality, one – for.

The result is known – in 1860 the residents supported the annexation of Nice by an overwhelming majority of votes.

From 1860 to 1892 the Palace of Justice was placed in the Senate premises. And then the banker named Jules Gilly who obtained the proprietary rights for the building decided to establish a social centre here, or simply, the night shelter. (Now the street to which the Senate faces bears the name of this benefactor).

The night shelter existed for quite a long time – up to the present day. And once during the restoration works the remains of stone fortifications of the 13th century were accidentally discovered under the building of the former Senate. Scientists-archaeologists tackled the problem and continue the excavations here up to now...