Candles and written messages
Left for Saint Rita in hopeless cases.
Zairon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Zairon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Zairon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Zairon — CC BY-SA 4.0
The oldest church in old Nice, known among residents as Santa Rita after Saint Rita of Cascia, invoked in hopeless cases. That is what makes it different from its neighbours: it is not a tourist sight but a very active place of worship visited by the people of Nice daily. You find it full of candles, written messages and flowers, and of people praying at hours no visitor would expect. It was founded in the sixteenth century on the site of an older church, and its interior was remade in the seventeenth in the baroque manner: coloured marble, gilded stucco, a painted ceiling and richly worked side chapels. The contrast with Nice's touristic churches is plain: no signage here, no donation boxes aimed at visitors, and an interior dark and thick with candle smoke. A working place of worship, free to enter, and respect is required.
Left for Saint Rita in hopeless cases.
No signage and no visitor-facing donation boxes.
Coloured marble and gilded stucco in air thick with candle smoke.
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Cathédrale Sainte-RéparateIn old Nice's lane-maze, Place Rossetti opens suddenly onto a Baroque cathedral 2 min walkA fourteenth-century Italian nun who lived in Cascia. She married a violent man and endured years with him; then her husband was killed and both her sons died, and she entered the convent after being repeatedly refused. In Catholic tradition she is known as the saint of the impossible or the patron of hopeless cases, and people turn to her in crises with no expected solution. Her popularity is enormous in Italy, southern France and Latin America.
Enter quietly and do not talk; silence your phone. Never photograph worshippers and do not use flash. Avoid crossing before the altar during prayer or sitting in the front pews reserved for the congregation. Dress: shoulders and knees covered for everyone. If a mass is being said it is better to wait outside, or sit at the back in silence until it ends.
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