Ludovico Brea's altarpieces
Three early Renaissance panels by a painter rare outside the Nice region.
Eric Coffinet — Public domain · Édouard Hue (User:EdouardHue) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Zairon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · V4nco — CC BY-SA 4.0
A Franciscan monastery on the Cimiez hill north of central Nice, holding a museum on the history of the Franciscan order in the region, with gardens around it looking over the city and the sea. The church attached to the monastery holds three altarpieces by Ludovico Brea from the early Renaissance, among the most important painters of the Nice region, whose work is rare outside it. The museum explains monastic life practically: cells, furniture, manuscripts and tools, with models of how the monastery was organised. The garden is what draws most visitors: among the oldest monastery gardens in France, with terraces, paths, roses and citrus trees, and a view running over Nice and the Baie des Anges. Beside the monastery is a cemetery where the painter Henri Matisse lies, having spent his last years in Nice and died there. The Matisse museum itself is minutes away in the neighbouring park, alongside Roman ruins of the ancient city of Cemenelum. Entry to the monastery and garden is normally free. The monastery is a working place of worship — modest dress and silence.
Three early Renaissance panels by a painter rare outside the Nice region.
Among France's oldest monastery gardens, with a view over the Baie des Anges.
The painter spent his last years in Nice and is buried in the adjoining cemetery.
The Cimiez hill, north of central Nice
Cimiez MonasteryA Franciscan monastery on the Cimiez hill above Nice, in place since the Middle 1 min walk
Matisse MuseumHenri Matisse lived in Nice for nearly forty years and said its light was why he3 min walk
Excelsior Régina PalaceThe Excelsior Régina is a vast white edifice on the **Cimiez** hill above Nice, 6 min walk
Château de ValroseA nineteenth-century château north of Nice, built by a wealthy Russian businessm13 min walk
Marc Chagall National MuseumThe Chagall museum in Nice holds the world's largest public collection of the pa17 min walkThe monastery and its garden, the Matisse museum in a red villa amid an olive grove, and the Roman ruins of Cemenelum with its baths, amphitheatre and archaeological museum. The three adjoin and can be seen in half a day, and the hill is quieter and cooler than the Nice seafront.
He came in 1917 for his health and stayed most of the rest of his life, saying the light of the Riviera changed his colour. His work from that period is brighter and flatter than before. The Rosary Chapel at nearby Vence, which he designed entirely late in life, he considered his most important work.
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