XIII Cimiez Nice (Cemenelum)

What3words – debating.freezing.spurned

Visited October 2019

Construction Date - 70-80AD

Capacity - 5000

In The 18th Century, the hills two miles inland from the old town and port of Nice sported olive groves, vineyards, a monastery and what the novelist Tobias Smollet described as ‘a rich mine of antiquities’ when he passed through in 1765. He was talking about the remains of Cemenelum. When Nice became the summer destination for the crowned heads and other gilded gentry of northern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they built their winter palaces and mansions in these hills commanding views of the bay and the port. The area is now known as Cimiez. In their midst are the remains of the Roman settlement, as well as museums dedicated to Matisse and Chagall.

Standing right beside the Avenue des Arenes de Cimiez, forming part of a public park which is free to enter are the remains of the amphitheatre. Relatively compact, estimated to seat ‘only’ 5000 and partly cut into the rock of the hillside, the podium, a significant section of the outer wall and some nifty Roman concrete work survives.