"As far back as memory goes, men have always lived in this land".
Europe's oldest prehistoric site, the Grotto of Le Vallonet at Roquebrune, a million years old, was discovered here on the Côte d'Azur and it was on the shores of Nice that the men of Terra-Amata set up the very first encampments. It was in the high-altitude valleys, between 2,000 and 2,800 m, that the pastoral folk of the Copper and Ancient Bronze Age carved their images of the world into stone. 600 years B. C., it was again in Nice and also in Antibes that the Greeks of Phocea set up their first trading posts after initially settling in Marseille. At La Turbie, 6 years B.C., Emperor Augustus celebrated Rome's conquest of its very first province this side of the Alps. The history of the Côte d'Azur is thus much older than its name, coined so successfully in 1887.
Torment is indeed the word to describe the history of an entire region, obliged to defend its territory and redefine its borders, coveted by several different powers: the Phoceans, Celto-Ligurians, Romans, Barbarians, the County of Nice and the House of Savoy, the Kingdoms of France and Piedmont-Sardinia, the Empire and Republic of France...It had to protect, arm and defend itself, always keeping an eye on the surrounding regions - as far as that eye could see. Sheltered by the mountains but accessible by sea, the people of the region made the most of their environment by building hill-top villages, castles and fortresses on isolated peaks, surrounding themselves by ramparts, building tall windowless façdes and erecting citadels and bastions all along the coast.
