CASTLE'S MONUMENTAL CEMETERY

In 1783, an edict of the King of Sardinia Victor Amédée III (1726-1796) prohibited the burial of corpses in churches for reasons of hygiene and place. It is then a question of finding a new site to establish a graveyard. The Hill Hill, a rough terrain since the demolition of the citadel (1706) lends itself perfectly. Other funeral fields are located with the parishes of Campagn (Saint-Roch, Saint-Pierre d'Arena, Saint-Etienne, St. Helena, Saint-Barthélemy, Ruins, Gairaut, and the hills). This cemetery is one of the top three monumental cemeteries in Europe with those of Milan and Genoa. From the entrance, we are moved by the presence of the monument to the dead dedicated to the victims of the municipal theatre fire. On March 23, 1881, 24 people died in the flames while they came to attend the representation.

The particularity of the cemetery lies in the many personalities who are buried there: writer Gaston Leroux (1868-1927), painter Clément Roassal (1781-1850), the member for Nice in the parliament of Turin Benoît Bunico (1810-1863), the privateer Joseph Bavastro (1760-1833), the naturalist Antoine Risso (1777-1845), and poet Agathe-Sophie Sasserno (1810-1860). From the second half of the th century, the nice political society came to join these first personalities: Mayors Alfred Borriglione (1843-1902) and Honoré Sauvan (1860-1922), Ministers Edouard Corniglion-Molinier (1898-1963) and Edouard Grinda (1866-1959), Members Constantin Bergondi (1819-1874), Flaminius Raiberti (1862-1929) and Ernest Lairolle (1851-1926). The world of culture is also present: The international poet "Menica" Rondelly (1854-1935) who wrote "Nissa the Bella" became the official anthem of the city. We also note the presence of some benefactors such as François Zanin, César Rossetti, Hippolyte Défly, Wladislaw de Lenval and François Grosso (whose angel of the monumental tomb seems bless the city), whose names are also the geography of the city.