Nice is fully participating in the national commemoration of the centenary of the First World War, particularly through the programming of several cultural events (exhibitions, publications, screenings, concerts, readings, heritage tours, conferences…) between 2014 and 2018.
François Rabut, president of the Nice Côte d’Azur section of the Association of Members of the Legion of Honor Decorated with Life Risk, is responsible for coordinating this program.
For the record, more than 5,000 citizens of Nice and the surrounding mountain regions gave their lives for their country during this major conflict.
The “Mission du Centenaire” of the First World War has thus labeled five projects of the City of Nice for 2014 and the first half of 2015:
– The digital war memorial, available online,
– The historical exhibition “Nice 1914,” at the municipal archives,
– The artistic exhibition “Pierre Comba and Gustav Adolf Mossa, Painters of the Great War,” at the Masséna Museum,
– The historical exhibition “Nice and its Italians: The Entry into War (1915),” at the municipal archives,
– The collection of audiovisual testimonies by the Cinémathèque de Nice.
According to Christian Estrosi: “A pivotal date in the history of France, 1914 takes on a particular significance for our city because this war was the moment where, after the legal act of 1860, the union of Nice with France was profoundly and emotionally sealed by the bloodshed.”
Beyond the sacrifice made, it is also the moment when the city and the County entered the modernity of the new century. The inclusion of women in all economic and social aspects of life, the end of luxury winter tourism, and the shift of the economic life towards the coast resulted from or were at least accelerated by this event.
