On Tuesday, January 24th at 7:00 PM, at the Masséna Bookstore, historian Yvan Gastaut and photographer-videographer Robert Matthez will be present for the launch of the book “In the Footsteps of the Builders” (published by Serre). This event is organized with the support of the National Book Center.
At the end of the First World War, a young Piedmontese immigrant, Jean Spada, hauled rocks from the Paillon River in his cart. By the 1960s, he found himself at the helm of one of the largest construction companies in Nice.
Through the history of this company, the working conditions, the development of unions, the strength of immigration, the evolution of techniques, and the transformation of the Côte d’Azur’s landscape over the last century are explored in an unusual way.
It is also the story of artists who settled in the former premises of this company and became, sometimes unwittingly, the protagonists in the rehabilitation of industrial heritage into cultural wasteland.
This is a collection of anecdotes and memories of men and women who crossed paths at the same place, the Spada hall, and who recount a particular 20th century in Nice.
