It’ been a VERY long wait but the beautiful Saint Sepulchre Chapel on Place Garibaldi has finally opened its doors after a five-year restoration process. In fact the chapel was open only intermittently for years before. Now everyone an appreciate the meticulously restored frescoes, masonry, woodwork, gilding and painted decoration.
The solemn opening ceremony on Friday January 17 was followed by a weekend of guided visits, musical interludes and a special mass. My favorite event was the Saturday afternoon “Eloquence Competition” which sounds much drearier than it was. A team from Nice’s debating society (who knew?) argued their positions on whether Notre Dame in Paris should have been restored (no, according to the audience vote!) and whether Catherine Segurane, Nice’s 16th-century heroine, should be honored. That was another hard no from the audience. Only in France.
The main attraction was the exquisite interior of the surprisingly small chapel. The ceiling frescoes painted in the 19th century by Nice artist Emmanuel Costa add a light, fresh touch to the chapel.
The ceiling fresco above depicts the Assomption of the Virgin which was a shout-out to a much earlier church that this chapel replaced. The older church, Notre Dame du Sincaire, was dedicated to the Virgin Mary who supposedly appeared there during the siege of 1543. It was a popular pilgrimage site but when architect Antoine Spinelli designed Place Garibaldi in 1782 he realized the older church had to go. In a nod to the prior church, cannonballs from the siege and a plaque explaining the events are mounted on the exterior. Some of the stones from the old church were used in the pillars.
A curious feature of the chapel is that the entrance is on the first floor and that a wrought-iron balcony extends from the chapel to overlook Place Garibaldi. The idea was to make Place Garibaldi a grandiose square to welcome Nice’s rulers at the time, the Dukes of Savoy who were based in Turin. Constructed in the mid-19th century, the balcony provided a space for the travelling duke to address his subjects.
The Saint Sepulchre chapel is managed by the Blue Penitents, a benevolent association of lay people founded in 1431. Their first chapel was in the Franciscan Convent in Cimiez before being installed on Place Garibaldi at the end of the 18th century. The brotherhood remained highly influential until France annexed Nice in 1860 at which point it went into decline. The advent of a governmental social safety net in the 20th century made the essential charitable services provided by the brotherhood less necessary.
Because of its association with Nice’s iconic siege of 1543, the chapel is as much a symbol of Nice as a religious building. If you visit, make sure to check out the Assumption of the Virgin, by Louis-Abraham van Loo, the Ascension of Christ (currently under restoration) and a cycle of 17th and 18th century paintings showing the devotions of the Blue Penitnent brotherhood. The chapel is open for visits Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 5pm.