On Friday, February 26, 2021, the Archaeology Service of the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis was called upon by the Green Spaces Directorate of the City of Nice to conduct an assessment of an underground gallery unearthed during work carried out in the garden of Colonel Jeanpierre Square in Nice. The field observations helped identify a civil air-raid shelter of the Passive Defense in a good state of preservation, probably set up under the garden at the end of the 1930s.
This underground construction, installed under the garden, is of the trench-shelter type made of reinforced concrete. The underground gallery, 63.48 meters long, has a zigzag pattern, also known as a sawtooth path, to prevent collapse risks and protect the population from the effects of the explosion of a bomb in a direct line. This military sawtooth technique was widely used for trenches during the two World Wars. The gallery-shelter, measuring 1.2 m wide at the base and 1.7 m in the center of the wall for a total height of 1.8 m, consists of a vault where the negative imprint of the formwork boards can still be seen, with walls initially vertical then sloped inward down to the concrete floor.
The Discovery of an Old 1930s Shelter
Access to the inside of the shelter is via the stairs of two entries located at each end of the gallery: one is situated to the west of the garden, the other further to the east. The entries contain the imprints of a metallic door that is now missing. In a small alcove, at the center of the gallery, an evacuation opening corresponds to the location of a public toilet whose seat is missing, located near an air vent opening arranged in the center of the vault.
The location of the reinforced concrete structure is determined by the proximity of the Nice railway station south of the square, one of the prime targets for Allied aviation during World War II to cut the supply lines of the German occupier. Furthermore, besides large capacity shelters or shelters set up in the basements of buildings, it was common to provide shelters under public gardens for the population. Another Passive Defense shelter was located in Nice, under the garden of the old Place Defly, destroyed in the 1970s during the construction of the underground parking at the current Place of General Marshall.
The Mayor’s Words
“Nice is full of many treasures. The unprecedented discovery of a 1930s civil air-raid shelter of the Passive Defense under the garden of Colonel Jeanpierre Square once again testifies to the richness of our heritage.” explains the Mayor of the City of Nice, Christian Estrosi.
“I would like to highlight the efficiency and expertise of our teams who, in a very short time, have identified, analyzed, and protected the site which will be preserved as is. We will indeed replace and consolidate the existing concrete slabs that seal the west entrance of the gallery, and proceed to a georeferenced 3D modeling to restore the 2D-3D plan on the urban mapping of Nice.” he adds.
“The Archaeology Service of the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis, created in 2009, supports all territorial development projects by conducting preventive and scheduled excavations, both terrestrial and underwater. With around ten professions related to archaeology, the service has developed many chronological and thematic skills to meet the needs of the community and all audiences. In over 10 years, the service has surveyed, diagnosed, and explored more than 100,000 square meters of terrain.”
