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Roots Earth in Nice: audio stories about 56 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 56 places in Nice, France, in Europe. The Nice stories are in English and German only: Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian are in 126 of the 130 Roots Earth cities, and Nice is not one of them. The app needs no account: open Nice, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 56 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: nice.md

The 56 places in Nice with audio stories

In the order the app shows them.

  1. Sainte-Réparate Cathedral
  2. Church of the Gesù (Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur)
  3. Chapel of Mercy
  4. Church of Saint Martin and Saint Augustine
  5. Church of the Annunciation (Sainte-Rita)
  6. Lascaris Palace
  7. Cours Saleya Market
  8. Rue Benoît-Bunico, the former Jewish ghetto
  9. Place Saint-François, the fish market and the old town hall
  10. Palace of the Dukes of Savoy
  11. Place Garibaldi
  12. Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre
  13. The Ponchettes
  14. The buried Pairolière gate fortifications
  15. Nice Opera House
  16. Castle Hill
  17. Bellanda Tower
  18. Castle Hill Cemeteries
  19. Rauba-Capeù War Memorial
  20. Port Lympia
  21. The Old Convict Prison (Espace Lympia)
  22. Place Île-de-Beauté and Notre-Dame-du-Port
  23. Promenade des Anglais
  24. Memorial to the victims of 14 July 2016
  25. Hotel Negresco
  26. Palais de la Méditerranée
  27. Villa Masséna
  28. Jardin Albert Ier
  29. Place Masséna
  30. The Marble Cross
  31. Holy Trinity Anglican Church
  32. Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral
  33. Basilica of Notre-Dame de l'Assomption
  34. Jules Chéret Fine Arts Museum
  35. Nice Synagogue
  36. The Excelsior Hotel and the Shoah memorial stele
  37. Church of Saint Joan of Arc
  38. Promenade du Paillon
  39. MAMAC, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
  40. Louis Nucéra Library and the Square Head
  41. The Cimiez Arena
  42. Cemenelum: the Roman baths and the Archaeology Museum
  43. Matisse Museum, Villa des Arènes
  44. Cimiez Monastery, its gardens and cemetery
  45. Excelsior Régina Palace
  46. Marc Chagall National Museum
  47. Fort du Mont Alban
  48. Château de l'Anglais
  49. Terra Amata Prehistory Museum
  50. Côte d'Azur Observatory, Mont Gros
  51. Gairaut Waterfall
  52. Villa Arson
  53. Libération Market and the Gare du Sud
  54. Saint-Pons Abbey Church
  55. Nice-Ville Railway Station
  56. Place du Palais and the Law Courts

Is there an audio guide for Sainte-Réparate Cathedral?

Yes. Sainte-Réparate Cathedral has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English and German.

It is place 1 of the 56 Nice places in the app, at 43.70388889, 7.25388889. Every one of the other 55 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in Nice

Open Roots Earth and choose Nice. The city has its own map of places with all 56 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English and German, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 56 places in Nice, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 56 places in Nice, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English and German. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. Sainte-Réparate Cathedral

Coordinates
43.70388889, 7.25388889
In one line
Nice's Baroque cathedral records the gradual shift from the fortified town on Castle Hill to the growing lower town. Its lavish chapels preserve layers of family, guild, episcopal and civic devotion.

2. Church of the Gesù (Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur)

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
A Baroque survivor of Nice's Jesuit college, this church preserves the imprint of its suppressed founding order and revolutionary political afterlife. Seventeenth-century settings frame later paintings.

3. Chapel of Mercy

Coordinates
43.6957833, 7.2753583
In one line
This compact Piedmontese Baroque chapel preserves its Theatine origins beneath an identity later shaped by the Black Penitents. Its oval interior unites exuberant eighteenth-century decoration with much older devotional art.

4. Church of Saint Martin and Saint Augustine

Coordinates
43.6961833, 7.2763778
In one line
This restrained Baroque parish church preserves a guild plaque carried forward from its medieval predecessor, alongside other objects older than the present walls. Paintings, ex-votos, a cannonball and Garibaldi's baptismal record turn the interior into an unusually tangible archive of Nice.

5. Church of the Annunciation (Sainte-Rita)

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
This compact Baroque church is known by three names: the Annunciation, Sainte-Rita and Saint-Jaume. Its ornate interior reveals how changing artworks and popular devotion repeatedly reshaped one old-town parish.

6. Lascaris Palace

Coordinates
43.6977, 7.27725
In one line
This aristocratic Baroque townhouse turns a difficult old-town plot into a sequence of stairs, courts and painted state rooms. It now houses Nice's museum of early musical instruments.

7. Cours Saleya Market

Coordinates
43.6956, 7.275039
In one line
An aristocratic promenade turned open-air market, Cours Saleya gathers flowers, produce and fish beneath awnings. Its long, colourful street reveals how Nice’s horticultural economy became part of everyday civic life.

8. Rue Benoît-Bunico, the former Jewish ghetto

Coordinates
43.697253, 7.276858
In one line
This narrow Old Nice street preserves the memory of a Jewish quarter made compulsory in the eighteenth century. Carved dates, an old bilingual name and the name of emancipation advocate Benoît Bunico reveal its layered history.

9. Place Saint-François, the fish market and the old town hall

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
Place Saint-François unites a working fish market with Nice’s former communal palace and civic clock tower. Its triton fountain and Baroque façades preserve a square shaped by religion, government, trade and revolution.

10. Palace of the Dukes of Savoy

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
Nice’s former seat of Savoyard power is now the prefectural palace, although almost none of the original residence survives. Its grand stone façades and state rooms largely belong to later French rebuilding.

11. Place Garibaldi

Coordinates
43.696727, 7.275889
In one line
Nice’s oldest large square is a Savoyard ceremonial gateway framed by ochre façades and deep arcades. Its Garibaldi monument and buried fortifications tie the square to Nice’s Piedmontese past and to the general born in this city.

12. Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre

Coordinates
43.7005056, 7.2799083
In one line
Built into Place Garibaldi’s uniform frontage, this eighteenth-century chapel resembles a civic palace more than a church. It remains the home of Nice’s Blue Penitents and preserves centuries of processional art.

13. The Ponchettes

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
Two low arcaded ranges turn former fishermen’s shelters and maritime workshops into a bridge between Cours Saleya and the sea. Their roof terraces created Nice’s earliest seaside promenade.

14. The buried Pairolière gate fortifications

Coordinates
43.7005, 7.27884
In one line
Hidden beneath Boulevard Jean-Jaurès at Place Garibaldi, this archaeological crypt preserves Nice’s principal lower-town gate, a defensive tower, bastions and an aqueduct. Its walls reveal how fortification changed from medieval masonry to artillery defence.

15. Nice Opera House

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
This compact Italianate opera house rose from the ashes of a catastrophic fire in 1881. Behind its masonry exterior, a metal-framed auditorium gathers red velvet, gilded boxes, crystal and a mythological ceiling.

16. Castle Hill

Coordinates
43.69781389, 7.28032222
In one line
This wooded public park occupies the summit where Nice’s medieval cathedral and citadel once stood. Archaeological foundations, shaded paths and a dramatic cascade turn a deliberately dismantled fortress into a place of views.

17. Bellanda Tower

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
This white circular belvedere rises on the old footings of a tower that stood near the jetty protecting Nice’s first harbour. Rebuilt as a hotel annex in the nineteenth century, it combines a panoramic terrace with an exhibition of reconstructed historical figures.

18. Castle Hill Cemeteries

Coordinates
43.580834, 7.123889
In one line
These terraced Christian and Jewish cemeteries occupy the former Castle Hill fortifications. Marble chapels, angels, portraits and memorials preserve a layered history of Niçois families, foreign residents, civic figures and collective loss.

19. Rauba-Capeù War Memorial

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
Cut into Castle Hill above the sea road, this immense stone memorial unites architecture, sculpture and landscape in remembrance of Nice’s war dead. Its local name recalls the fierce wind that “steals your hat. ”

20. Port Lympia

Coordinates
43.6989, 7.28524
In one line
Port Lympia is Nice’s historic working harbour, excavated from a marshy hollow and developed over generations. Its basins bring traditional fishing boats, passenger traffic, freight structures and elegant quays into one layered waterfront.

21. The Old Convict Prison (Espace Lympia)

Coordinates
43.6949, 7.2862083
In one line
This long quayside building began as port workshops before becoming a military prison, penal colony and civil jail. Preserved anti-escape fittings and sleeping platforms now share the former confinement space with a cultural centre.

22. Place Île-de-Beauté and Notre-Dame-du-Port

Coordinates
43.6989, 7.28524
In one line
Notre-Dame-du-Port anchors Place Île-de-Beauté with a monumental portico facing the harbour. The church and its carefully ordered square express both Nice’s Savoyard past and the French city that followed annexation.

23. Promenade des Anglais

Coordinates
43.694523, 7.260107
In one line
Nice’s great seafront promenade began as frost-relief work funded by British winter visitors. Its palms, blue chairs, grand façades and long public waterfront became the defining spine of the city’s international resort landscape.

24. Memorial to the victims of 14 July 2016

Coordinates
43.694523, 7.260107
In one line
Set within the enclosed garden of Villa Masséna, this memorial names the 86 people killed in the 14 July 2016 attack.

25. Hotel Negresco

Coordinates
43.6952389, 7.2631306
In one line
An exuberant Belle Époque hotel with a pink dome, the Negresco pairs its grand Promenade des Anglais façade with an art collection shaped by Jeanne Augier. Its history runs from royal ambition through wartime hospital service to cultural stewardship.

26. Palais de la Méditerranée

Coordinates
43.6952389, 7.2631306
In one line
The Palais de la Méditerranée is an Art Deco seafront survivor with a hidden break in its history. Its two monumental façades remain, but the hotel and casino behind them are modern replacements for vanished entertainment halls.

27. Villa Masséna

Coordinates
43.695219, 7.258944
In one line
Villa Masséna is a neoclassical seaside mansion turned museum, pairing Belle Époque architecture with First Empire art and local history. Its formal garden and ceremonial rooms preserve the cultivated world of Nice’s grand winter-resort era.

28. Jardin Albert Ier

Coordinates
43.695964, 7.268239
In one line
Jardin Albert Ier is Nice’s early public link between the old city and the seafront. Palm shade, a bandstand, memorial sculpture and Bernar Venet’s black steel arc reveal layers of civic design above the Paillon’s buried course.

29. Place Masséna

Coordinates
43.7006056, 7.2680194
In one line
Place Masséna is Nice’s Italianate civic centre, where ochre arcades surround bold black-and-white paving. A buried river, a vanished casino, monumental fountains and Jaume Plensa’s elevated figures all contribute to the square seen today; its openness is largely the result of the casino’s demolition.

30. The Marble Cross

Coordinates
43.6963, 7.26266
In one line
The Marble Cross and the nearby Pius the Seventh column are two separate outdoor monuments. One recalls fragile Renaissance diplomacy through a heavily rebuilt cross; the other marks a pope’s two passages through Nice, the first in captivity and the second after his release.

31. Holy Trinity Anglican Church

Coordinates
43.6972139, 7.2634833
In one line
This neo-Gothic church was built for Nice’s established English colony as the city was annexed to France. Its quiet churchyard, historic organ and layered furnishings preserve a distinctly Anglican story on the Riviera.

32. Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral

Coordinates
43.70388889, 7.25388889
In one line
Five onion domes and vivid ornament make this active Orthodox cathedral an unexpected landmark in Nice. Built for the Russian colony, it also memorialises Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, who died in the city.

33. Basilica of Notre-Dame de l'Assomption

Coordinates
43.70306, 7.26583
In one line
Nice’s largest church brings French neo-Gothic architecture to a busy central shopping avenue. Its twin towers, Assumption rose window and long chapel-lined interior express both post-annexation ambition and a living community’s memory.

34. Jules Chéret Fine Arts Museum

Coordinates
43.694583, 7.248889
In one line
A sumptuous hilltop villa now houses Nice’s fine-arts collection, ranging from Bronzino to Dufy. Its marble staircase and former ballroom preserve the social world of the American family who completed the villa.

35. Nice Synagogue

Coordinates
43.699811, 7.269336
In one line
This active Great Synagogue serves a Jewish community with medieval roots in Nice. Its gate-like stone façade, original furnishings and modern stained glass hold growth, wartime persecution and renewal within one compact building.

36. The Excelsior Hotel and the Shoah memorial stele

Coordinates
43.7033314, 7.2622905
In one line
An operating Belle Époque hotel faces a pavement stele marking its wartime use as a detention centre before deportation. The ordinary façade and the memorial opposite must be read together.

37. Church of Saint Joan of Arc

Coordinates
43.6972, 7.2758
In one line
White ovoid domes and a needle-like campanile make this active parish church an unconventional Nice landmark. Its Art Deco design turns thin reinforced concrete into a sculptural, almost weightless composition.

38. Promenade du Paillon

Coordinates
43.697025, 7.270336
In one line
This contemporary green corridor follows the course of a river hidden beneath central Nice. Lawns, global plantings, play sculptures, mist, and a vast water mirror replace the transport structures that once occupied the site.

39. MAMAC, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
Four marble-clad towers and suspended glass walkways form a museum, bridge, and urban gateway above the buried Paillon. The architecture frames a collection especially strong in European New Realism and American Pop.

40. Louis Nucéra Library and the Square Head

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
Sacha Sosno’s monumental aluminium head rises above a largely hidden public library. The seven office floors inside the sculpture house library administration, while reading rooms spread below and beside it.

41. The Cimiez Arena

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
Low masonry outlines one of Roman Gaul’s smaller amphitheatres amid Cimiez’s olive trees. Built in two rapid campaigns, its surviving gates, stairs, and vaulted cells still reveal how spectacle separated performers, crowds, and officials.

42. Cemenelum: the Roman baths and the Archaeology Museum

Coordinates
43.715783, 7.271833
In one line
Three Roman bath complexes preserve the public heart of Cemenelum, once capital of the Alpes Maritimae. An adjoining museum connects the ruined rooms and heating systems to soldiers, roads, burials, worship, and everyday objects.

43. Matisse Museum, Villa des Arènes

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
An ochre Genoese villa in Cimiez houses the city’s Matisse collection. Built through gifts from the artist and his family, the museum traces his painting, drawing, sculpture and radical work with cut paper.

44. Cimiez Monastery, its gardens and cemetery

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
Cimiez Monastery is a working Franciscan complex with a medieval church behind a nineteenth-century revival façade. Its art-filled interior, formal public garden and cemetery connect centuries of religious life with modern Nice.

45. Excelsior Régina Palace

Coordinates
43.719, 7.2725
In one line
This vast Belle Époque palace began as a luxury hotel designed around Queen Victoria’s winter stays. Now divided into private apartments, its long façade preserves the scale and ceremony of elite Cimiez.

46. Marc Chagall National Museum

Coordinates
43.70917, 7.2695361
In one line
France’s first national museum devoted to a living artist was designed around Chagall’s Biblical Message cycle. Its low modern pavilion unites painting, stained glass, mosaic, sculpture, music and Mediterranean planting.

47. Fort du Mont Alban

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
This compact sixteenth-century fort commands the ridge between Nice and Villefranche. Its bastions, drawbridge, cistern and artillery terrace reveal a carefully engineered frontier position whose military record was surprisingly uneven.

48. Château de l'Anglais

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
This theatrical Mont Boron villa mixes Indian-derived forms, arcades, crenellations and English emblems. Built for Robert Smith, a British engineer officer who had served in India, the villa is now a private apartment building and the surviving core of a once-vast coastal estate.

49. Terra Amata Prehistory Museum

Coordinates
43.6978556, 7.289194
In one line
Beneath a modern apartment block, this museum preserves the prehistoric deposit uncovered during construction in 1965. Its stone tools, animal remains and debated dwelling traces reveal repeated human visits to Nice’s ancient shoreline.

50. Côte d'Azur Observatory, Mont Gros

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
Scattered across a wooded hilltop, this working observatory unites Charles Garnier’s scientific campus with Gustave Eiffel’s ingenious moving dome. Its great refractor embodies the ambition and engineering of late nineteenth-century astronomy.

51. Gairaut Waterfall

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
An Alpine-looking chalet crowns an artificial cascade built as the terminal work of the Vésubie Canal. Its stepped falls made civic infrastructure theatrical while sunlight and aeration helped treat Nice’s water.

52. Villa Arson

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
Villa Arson folds an art school, exhibition centre, residencies and historic gardens into a terraced concrete complex around a red eighteenth-century villa. Michel Marot’s architecture turns the hillside itself into a walkable cultural landscape.

53. Libération Market and the Gare du Sud

Coordinates
43.69583333, 7.27138889
In one line
The Libération district brings a sprawling street market together with Nice’s former southern railway terminus. Its colourful passenger façade and vast glass-and-metal hall survive through civic rescue and imaginative reuse.

54. Saint-Pons Abbey Church

Coordinates
43.72504722, 7.28315833
In one line
Within Pasteur Hospital, this Baroque abbey church preserves a Carolingian religious legacy and the forecourt where Nice accepted Savoyard rule in 1388. Its single tower and convex façade shelter an elliptical interior.

55. Nice-Ville Railway Station

Coordinates
43.705005, 7.261929
In one line
Nice-Ville is a working railway station whose brick-and-stone façade marked the city’s transformation into an international destination. Its mid-nineteenth-century architecture still anchors the busy interchange known locally as Gare Thiers.

56. Place du Palais and the Law Courts

Coordinates
43.695949, 7.271413
In one line
Place du Palais is a pedestrian civic square framed by Nice’s neoclassical courthouse and the older Palais Rusca. Its architecture layers a Dominican past, military history and the continuing work of justice.

Roots Earth in short

Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people.

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