Lomography

Castle and Hill of Mt Boron, Nice
written by vicuna on June 22nd, 2009 , 6 comments (3 votes)

Please activate JavaScript to see this gallery.

The area of Nice is surrounded by a few hills above the sea and they were naturally used during all times as important strategic places to dominate the seaside and the valleys. One of the most famous castles in the area of Nice is the castle of Mt Boron, on the west side of the city and on the hill of the same name.

This hill makes the separation between the bay of Nice (or Angel’s bay) and the bay of Villefranche. In the ancient times, the road between these 2 places was passing by the hill and the most important is that it was the best strategic place all around to look in every direction and see all what happens, on land as on sea!

A huge castle was built there during the end of XIXth century in a fortification program by the architect Sérée de Rivières to protect France against the italian neighbour (Italy was at this time allied to Germany and the Austrian-Hungarian Empire).

Today, the castle is involved in a brand new project of re-construction into a contemporary architecture center lead by the french architect Jean Nouvel, who wants to give this place a new identity inside the old military structure.

Besides that, you have a beautiful natural parc of 57 ha between mountain and see and the most beautiful panoramas of the bay of Nice and the bay of Villefranche. That’s breathtaking when you can have a look at both sides in the same time.
To go there, you can make a nice walk from the port of Nice (or even the one from Villefranche) starting at the Beach restaurant “La Reserve”. There, you just have to follow the signs showing the pedestrian way “Mt Boron”, climbing up a lot of stairs and little narrow streets, and then you come into the woods and the parc. You can’t get wrong, until you’re climbing up you’re in the right direction! And there are regularly signs showing the way and some maps showing you the global situation (see the first link for details on this very nice walk towards the castle and through the parc)

http://www.randoxygene.org/pge/rando_pe/affiche_rando.php?rando=54&rubrique=1&zone=3
http://www.nice.fr/mairie_nice_4259.html