French government presents Nice's nomination for inscription on the World Heritage List

Mr. Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, and Mr. Franck Riester, Minister of Culture, announce that the application of Nice will be examined by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee during its session on July 2021.

« With the nomination of Nice, capital of the Riviera tourism, it is the model of cultural, heritage and tourism development in France that is thus highlighted. The inscription of Nice as a UNESCO World Heritage Site would strengthen the attractiveness and the cultural influence of all French territories. » declared Jean-Yves Le Drian.

« Nice’s nomination file, which we have decided to defend this year, is deeply original. It underlines the heritage value of a new type of urbanism: cosmopolitan and oriented on leisure. What has happened in Nice from the end of the 18th century was the invention of an important part of our modernity. » declared Franck Riester.

Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice, President of the Metropolis Nice Côte d´Azur, Deputy President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d´Azur Region :

« I am delighted and honored that the French Government has decided to accept the nomination of "Nice, capital of the Riviera tourism" for inscription on the World Heritage List and to present it to UNESCO. I would like to express all my gratitude to the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron who, by this choice, highlights the quality of the nomination file presented by our city.

The World Heritage Committee will thus be able, from 2021, during its plenary session, to evaluate this application after its examination by ICOMOS experts.

The Government’s decision rewards the national phase of this application, which I started in 2012, by entrusting its management to Jean-Jacques Aillagon.

The object of the nomination file is, let us remember, an urban landscape of almost 600 hectares constituted, from 1760 to the present day, by two and a half centuries of tourism economy and by the exclusive role that it has played in the urban development of Nice.

This ensemble is characterized by its regulated urban planning, its green spaces, planted with exotic species, its walks in the forefront of which, the emblematic Promenade des Anglais, its leisure-oriented heritage, reflecting contributions from around the world, with its villas, hotels and “palaces”, its leisure rental apartment buildings, frequently named "palais", as well as its international community churches and other places of cosmopolitan social life.

Tourism, a major phenomenon in the contemporary world, whose excesses are sometimes deplored, has also been conducive to the creation of a specific heritage, carrying outstanding universal value. Nice attests to this. »

Jean-Jacques Aillagon, former Minister of Culture and Communication, President of the Nice World Heritage Mission :

« To all those who took part in this work, I express my gratitude and I wish that we will be able to convince the UNESCO advisory bodies, over the coming months, of the quality of this application.

Over the past decades, UNESCO has inscribed on the World Heritage List a number of sites which bear witness to great phenomena of civilization. Mentioning only French sites, Albi testifies to the influence of the episcopal power on the organization of medieval cities, Versailles, has become the symbol of the architectural scenography of natural and urban spaces by royal power, Bordeaux is a reflection of the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, and Le Havre is the model of a city of Reconstruction. In the same way, the inscription of Nice, capital of Riviera tourism, would make it possible to inscribe on the World Heritage List a new cultural site, also stemming from a phenomenon of civilization, in this case the advent then the development of leisure, within modern societies, and then of what today we call tourism. »

Dossier de presse de la candidature

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La balade des bow-windows

Dans le cadre de la candidature de Nice au patrimoine mondial, un partenariat vient d’être signé entre la Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur et l’association PACAN, créée par Jean-Claude Roy et Silvano Bartolini, auteurs de l’ouvrage intitulé « La balade des Bow-windows, au cœur de la ville de Nice » (Edition Socca) , et par Jacques Micheli, concepteur d’une application qui vous permettra d’explorer, sur ordinateur ou directement sur le terrain avec votre téléphone mobile, ces éléments d’architecture si particuliers, et si nombreux à Nice.

La balade des bow-windows

Exposition en cours : « Nice ou l’invention du tourisme »

MISSION NICE PATRIMOINE MONDIAL
75, quai des Etats-Unis

Bencho Obreshkov, Paysage de Nice, 1939, Sofia, Galerie nationale des Beaux-arts © Droits réservés

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