What a joy for a history lover to discover in front of him, as if emerging from the distant past, the traces and witnesses of the centuries that shaped our city. These vestiges, some dating from before the dedication, were unearthed during archaeological excavations that accompanied the tramway line’s route.
How many people from Nice suspected the treasure they treaded every day while crossing Place Garibaldi, passing over these vestiges, some of which date back five centuries? A large part of our city’s history is recounted to us: glorious or painful events, then, myth and reality intertwine around Catherine Ségurane and her feat against the Turkish invader. Did she reveal a part of her anatomy, was she a heroine on the ramparts? In any case, the Turks were defeated, and together with their French allies, had to give up before this impregnable citadel.
It was the Sun King who decided to destroy this fortress in 1706. The foundations were not annihilated, and today, after four years of work, research, and development, the crypt is finally open to the public. The visitor will enter an underground cathedral, old stones, base of a tower, lines of ramparts, defenses, loopholes. A custom-molded concrete vault, beams, and columns, all harmonizing with the vestiges and the tram passing above, roaring in a muffled noise. We contemplate these walls where our ancestors fought for their city’s freedom. Does one know one entered the city through Pairolière Gate? No, of course not, since today this gate has disappeared and made way for queues of tourists waiting for their portion of Socca.
All the merit and especially the interest of this crypt is to give us the keys to the past, and who knows if these old stones don’t have secrets to reveal to us? Let’s listen to them tell us of these times when Nice was the Sentinella of Savoy. It is all this that you will discover during your visit. It’s an invaluable treasure whose access has been made possible by the tram works. Now Nice has its ramparts, they slept beneath our feet, in five centuries, the city stretches and the defense belts move, thus from the 13th to the 18th century, before our eyes, are the traces of Nice’s expansion. The visit to this crypt is both a lesson in history, archaeology, and architecture with the evolution from the wall to the bastion. The entrails of history, having opened the belly of this square where the greatest of the people from Nice always looks toward Piedmont and Turin, symbolizing so much for those who love their County. Furthermore, the visit ends in front of the triumphal arch marking the beginning of the road to Turin.
Everything is thus told, Nice has ultimately defeated Louis XIV, the king who made himself Count of Nice and demolished our citadel. The vestiges are still there, and Nice, the beautiful, through this crypt, rediscovers its glorious past.
