[ad_1]
After the Cordouan and Vichy lighthouse last Saturday, Unesco listed Nice as a world heritage site.
Nice joins France’s more than 40 World Heritage sites which include the banks of the Seine in Paris, Amiens Cathedral, Mont Saint Michel and stretches of the Loire Valley.
Unesco made the announcement in a tweet qualifying Nice, famous for its mild climate, as a “winter resort town on the Côte d’Azur”.
“The history of Nice, both deeply rooted and open, Mediterranean and Alpine, European and cosmopolitan, has produced a unique architecture and landscape, a model for many other cities in the world,” said the mayor of Nice Christian. Estrosi said in reaction to the announcement.
With nearly a million inhabitants, Greater Nice is the second city on the French Mediterranean coast after Marseille, and the fifth in France.
It is a tourist hotspot with several million visitors a year, and its airport is one of the busiest in the country.
Nicknamed “Nice la Belle”, the city attracted the European aristocracy as early as the 18th century, starting with the British royalty who had their name borne on the seafront “Promenade des Anglais”.
Painters like Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse also stayed there, as did writers Anton Tchekhov and Friedrich Nietzsche.
The seafront promenade became the scene of a deadly attack on July 14, 2016, when a 31-year-old Tunisian man drove a truck into the crowd gathered for fireworks to celebrate France’s National Day.
Eighty-six people, including 15 children, were killed in the attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) armed group.
The cultural body of the United Nations grants World Heritage status to sites deemed to be of particular universal value to humanity.
Major heritage sites include the Great Wall of China, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, Machu Picchu in Peru, and the Acropolis in Greece.
The distinction sought brings intangible benefits, but also often stimulates tourism, and can help secure funding for the preservation of sites.
Source link
