As the Grand Stadium project in Nice is on track, only one question is on everyone’s lips: what will it be called? After the portrait of Giuseppe Garibaldi, here is that of Catherine Ségurane.
Catherine Ségurane. This name is well-known to all the people of Nice. She is part of the history of the city of Nice and symbolizes resistance and determination in the eyes of the population. Her name refers to her act of bravery during the siege of Nice in 1543.
### The Woman Who Saved Nice
During Ségurane’s time, Nice was attached to Savoy. However, François I, in conflict with the Dukes of Savoy, had set himself the goal of taking Nice to affront them in a way worthy of himself. In his quest, he allied with the Turks to increase his military power.
Thus, in June 1543, the first Franco-Turkish forces attacked Nice and then besieged and even bombarded our city.
An initial assault was given on August 2, 1543. A second assault exhausted Nice on August 15. Yet, against all odds, the situation reversed, the Turkish flag eventually fell, and the assailants scattered. It took a third assault on September 8, which met serious resistance, to finally discourage the Franco-Turkish assailants.
With the two key dates of the resistance being August 15 and September 8, days dedicated to the Virgin Mary, it was enough for the people of Nice to attribute a miraculous dimension to their victory. Isn’t it said that, on August 15, she appeared to the people of Nice, covering the city with her mantle to collect the enemy’s bullets? But from this siege, another woman, made a significant impact, and this woman is Catherine Ségurane.
She distinguished herself from the top of the ramparts, haranguing the people of Nice, urging them to go back on the offensive to defend the city. Most notably, she gained her fame by knocking out a Turk with a laundry beater and taking his standard. Some versions slightly differ and mention that she repelled the assailants by turning around and showing them her posterior!
### Myth or Reality?
But one may also question the actual existence of this woman. Several points sow doubt in the most informed minds. Firstly, the mention of her deeds only occurs about fifty years after the end of the siege. Coming to supplant the intervention of the Virgin Mary on August 15, that of a Niçoise commoner, a washerwoman, becomes the version carried by legend and thus by history. This woman, it is the historian Honoré Pastorelli who first speaks of her, and his text is taken up and expanded throughout the 17th century. Moreover, the character might have existed but her existence is not proven,
But the most symptomatic point that casts doubt on the veracity of this historical episode is this: a chronicler who experienced the siege, Jean Badat, does not mention Catherine’s intervention.
This doubt did not prevent the city, at the time, from placing her effigy on the Pairolière gate, as if to discourage aggressors. Writers also give her a human depth: she appears as a sort of virago, ugly (the ill-made woman, it is said of her), strong, courageous, simple, and who returns to anonymity once her act of heroism is completed.
Whatever the case, real or not, her intervention remains forever engraved in the collective memory of the people of Nice. Stemming from the cult of the idealized feminine ideal by the epic of Joan of Arc and the courteous art of the 15th century, Catherine Ségurane remains a poignant symbol of the courage of the people of Nice during this dramatic siege. Her character reminds us, the people of Nice, that our city once was master of its destiny and that some were determined to deprive us of our freedom, our language, and the age-old traditions that were our greatest wealth. A good lesson to remember at a time when certain freedoms are scorned and put in danger in our society.
