-Saturday, February 12, 2011, at 3:00 PM, at the Théâtre de la Photographie
-by Jean-Marc Giaume, Municipal Councilor delegated to Historical Heritage, Niçoise Language and Culture, Community Advisor.
“Foreign Policy and Internal Reorganization of a Transalpine State”
Duke Emmanuel-Philibert of Savoy inherited a territory marked by a period of great tensions that endangered the very existence of the Duchy.
The troubles affecting the territory, his own experiences during childhood, and his character led Duke Emmanuel-Philibert to aim at building a true State in this strategically significant Alpine area, which was experiencing at that very time a great wave of emergence of European nations.
His decision to establish his capital in Turin and to equip his State with an administration and institutions similar to the great European monarchies makes Emmanuel-Philibert the initiator of a centralized State that would, three centuries later, become the cradle of the unification of the Italian peninsula.
In this context, a series of political, territorial, and administrative events would shape this regional space in which Nice would occupy a major position due to its status as the sole maritime outlet of the States of the House of Savoy. The importance of this outlying, frontier, and commercial position is reflected in the urban aspect and military heritage of Nice.
