Not Your Usual French Church

  

 

If you venture away from the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, past the Old Town and the train station northwest of the city, you’ll come across the Cathédrale Saint-Nicolas à Nice. This colorful onion-domed church surrounded by beautiful gardens is one of the more intriguing sites in Nice and has an interesting and unique history…

“With the soft breezes of the Mediterranean fanning his cheek, and wafting through his open window the odors of the vine and the olive, he breathed his last.”

Knox, Thomas W. “The Imperial Family of Russia” (Scribner’s Monthly Magazine, Dec. 1871, Volume 3, Issue 2. WikiSource Web. 18 Mar. 2013)

The Imperial family of Russia, the Romanovs, enjoyed spending the winter months in Nice and it was at the villa Bermond, rented by the family, that Tsesarevich Nicolas Alexandrovich, son of Czar (Emperor) Alexander II and heir to Imperial Russia, died on April 24, 1865.  So devastated was he by his son’s death, that Czar Alexander II purchased the villa so that he might create a memorial to his son.  And, although the Russian L’Eglise Saint-Nicolas et Sainte-Alexandra already existed at Rue Longchamp,     La Chapelle du Tsarévitch was built, as the story goes, in 1868 on the exact location of Nicolas’ room within the villa.

To accommodate a growing Russian Orthodox community, a new church was constructed in 1896 next to the Chapel of the Tsarevich, on the same land where the villa once stood.  Support for this new building project would come from Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (former fiancé of Tsarevich Nicolas and widow of his brother Emperor Alexander III) and her son, Czar Nicolas II, the reigning Emporer of Russia at the time.  It was reported that due to lack of funding for the building, Csar Nicolas gave 700,000 francs from his own accounts so that this new church could be built.

And, so it stands today, on rue Avenue Nicolas II  in Nice. The ornate and colorful exterior of the church and the intricate icons, which decorate virtually every inch of the interior, are impressive, and though the Cathedral is located outside of the Old Town, we recommend a visit to this historical site.  It’s a 15-minute walk from the train station, but if coming from the Old Town consider taking a bus (fares are reasonable; figure about 1€ one way or 4€ for a day pass).   Our photos are limited to exterior shots of the Cathedral since cameras were not allowed inside.

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