Monastère franciscain de Cimiez

The Monastère franciscain de Cimiez stands on Cimiez hill in Nice as a Franciscan monastery and architectural complex. Its origins reach back to the Notre-Dame de Cimiez chapel. The ensemble contains the fifteenth-century church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption, with Louis Bréa’s Pietà, Crucifixion, and Deposition. The sixteenth-century cloister adjoins the church beside the monastery. A Franciscan museum presents the order’s history in Nice and its connection with Saint Francis of Assisi. Historic gardens and a cemetery surround the monastic buildings. The gardens preserve a central well, rose-covered pergolas, citrus trees, olive trees, cypresses, fountains, and basins. Their terrace overlooks the Paillon valley and sea. The adjoining cemetery contains the graves of Henri Matisse, Raoul Dufy, and Nobel Prize-winning writer Roger Martin du Gard. The whole site holds status as a historical monument. Its church interiors include nineteenth-century decoration, while the complex preserves layers from Benedictine and Franciscan history. Cimiez places art, gardens, worship, and remembrance within one historic setting.