EXHIBITION "NICE, FROM THE SHORE TO THE SEA"

MAY 8 - SEPTEMBER 21, 2025

VILLA MASSÉNA

Through the exhibition " Nice, from the shore to the sea ", the Masséna Museum explores the relations that Nice has maintained with the Mediterranean throughout its history. From prehistoric times to the present day, from the Nikaia of the Greeks to the winter resort of Queen Victoria, the city has never ceased to reinvent its relationship with the shore. Sometimes, fearing threats, she turned away from them and protected herself. Often, she has made it the horizon of her audacity and her dreams.

Today, as the United Nations Ocean Conference is being held within its walls, Nice is also questioning more than ever its responsibility towards this natural environment, which is both fragile and threatened.

We are thus reminded of Paul Valéry's wish, at the time of the creation, in 1933, on the Promenade des Anglais, of the Mediterranean University Centre:

" It is to be hoped, (...) that our Centre will manifest itself and impose itself, one day, as the place where Mediterranean knowledge is developed, the point where an increasingly clear and complete awareness of the function of this privileged sea in the development of human ideals and resources is formed ".

Paul Valéry

These relationships will be evoked from several approaches that are translated into a tour of the rooms
In 7 steps:

• The Mediterranean: from origins to myth
• The Migration of Religions from East to West, the Holy Travellers
• The dreaded sea
• The late creation of a port, trade and fishing
• The sea as an object of study
• The invention of the shoreline, walks and baths
• Concern for the protection of the shore and the sea

Police station 

Jean-Jacques Aillagon: Former Minister of Culture and Communication