Chapelle du Saint-Sépulcre

The Chapelle du Saint-Sépulcre stands in Nice above the arcades of its surrounding square. Antoine Spinelli built it between 1782 and 1784, combining Turin-inspired neoclassicism with late-baroque urns, Corinthian pilasters, and a triangular bell tower.

Three projecting pillars support the façade, with exposed stones reused from the earlier Notre-Dame du Sincaïre chapel. Three cannonballs from the 1543 siege sit above the arcades, while a white limestone balcony carries the crown of the Dukes of Savoy above Victor-Emmanuel’s initials. Inside, a double staircase leads to paintings of Christ’s life, altars for Saint Sebastian and the Assumption, and a fifteenth-century wooden statue of Saint Sebastian. A gilded nineteenth-century Assumption group, a confraternity banner, and a seventeenth-century articulated figure used in Holy Week processions connect the space with the Blue Penitents’ religious traditions.

At the entrance, a sixteenth-century marble alms box shows Christ rising from the tomb. The chapel still serves the Blue Penitents, whose charitable work began with their fifteenth-century archconfraternity and continues alongside occasional services for Nice’s Polish community.