Antibes

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Commune of Antibes

A typical provençal ruelle in Antibes
Location
Longitude 07° 07' 26" E
Latitude 43° 34' 51" N
Administration
Country France
Region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Department Alpes-Maritimes
Arrondissement Grasse
Canton Chief town of 2 cantons
Intercommunality Communauté d'agglomération de Sophia Antipolis
Mayor Jean Leonetti (UMP)
(2001-2008)
Statistics
Altitude 0 m–163 m
(avg. 9 m)
Land area¹ 26.48 km²
Population²
(1999)		 72,412
 - Density (1999) 2,734.6/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code 06004/ 06600
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 mi² or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).
France

Antibes (Provençal Occitan: Antíbol in classical norm or Antibo in Mistralian norm) is a resort town of southeastern France, on the Mediterranean Sea in the Côte d'Azur, located between Cannes and Nice. It is c. 20 km by rail southwest of Nice, and is situated on the east side of the Garoupe peninsula. Its inhabitants are called Antibois or Antipolitains.

It was formerly fortified, but all the ramparts (save the Fort Carré, built by Vauban, and the ramparts along the sea coast), were demolished in the 1860s. A new town then rose outside the former defenses.

Antibes has the largest yacht marina (by total tonnage) on the Côte d'Azur, built in the 1960s on the site of a Roman harbor. There is still a local fishing industry, much diminished from its size a century ago. It was formerly a site of perfume distilling; the surrounding country once produced an abundance of flowers. Perfume distillation is still carried out on a commercial scale in nearby Grasse.

Contents

[edit] Administration

Antibes is a commune of the Alpes-Maritimes département (formerly in that of the Var, but transferred after the Alpes-Maritimes department was formed in 1860 out of the county of Nice). It covers a number of distinct areas, including:

  • Antibes proper (which includes Vieux Antibes, or Old Town, the medieval village of stone masonry)
  • Port Vauban and the Yacht Club d'Antibes, a huge marina with a separate section devoted to sumptuous mega-yachts
  • Cap d'Antibes (an exclusive residential area containing several magnificent chateaux)
  • Juan-les-Pins (Unlike the Spanish name, the J in Juan is pronounced like the S in treasure)
  • the southern parts of Sophia Antipolis (the northern parts belonging to Biot and Valbonne)

[edit] History

[edit] Greek Antipolis

In prehistory, the area around Antibes was inhabited by the Deciates (Δεκιῆται), a tribe of the Ligurians (Smith, entry on Deciátes; Cosson, pp.20-23). The border with the Ligurian Oxybii (Ὀξύβιοι) being to the west of Antibes and east of Frejus (Smith, entry on Oxybii). The Deciates had a town in the area, oppidum Deciatum but this was not Antibes itself (Pliny the Elder, Chorographia, 2.69):

In litoribus aliquot sunt cum aliquis nominibus loca: ceterum rarae urbes quia rari portus, et omnis plaga austro atque africo exposita est. Nicaea tangit Alpes, tangit oppidum Deciatum, tangit Antipolis.

Antibes was the ancient Antipolis (Stabo, Geography 4.1.9). It was founded as a colony of Massallia (Marseilles), in the 6th century BCE, across the bay from Nikea (Nice); the name in Greek means literally "city across" or "city opposite," Anti polis, and is mentioned in the Geography of Strabo. Although no traces of the Greek port remain, wrecks of sunken ships (such as a 6th century BCE Etruscan ship) attest to the importance of this early port.

Polybius (Histories, 33.7) relates that in 155 BCE the Ligurians attacked Massallia, Antipolis and Nikea and in consequence, Massallia appealed to the Romans for help because of a treaty between Massallia and Rome. The resulting defeat of the Deciates and Oxybii also led to greater Roman involvement in the region, culminating in the battle of Aquae Sextiae in 102 BCE and the creation of the Roman province of Narbonensis along the coast from the Alps to the Pyrenees.

[edit] Roman Civitas Antipolitana

In 43 BCE, Antipolis lost its status as a free Masaliote city and was annexed by the Romans, becoming Civitas Antipolitana. This was later referred to by Strabo (Geography, 4.1.9):

although Antipolis is situated in the Narbonnaise, and Nicæa in Italy, this latter is dependent on Marseilles, and forms part of that province; while Antipolis is ranked amongst the Italian cities, and freed from the government of the Marseillese by a judgment given against them.

[edit] Tourism

The marina of Antibes at dusk
The marina of Antibes at dusk
Antibes at sunrise
Antibes at sunrise

The major attractions of Antibes are its history, climate, art, beaches and yachting. The sand beaches of Antibes are all manmade; the natural beaches are gravel (shingle in British English); in summer, these beaches are maintained using large tractors towing a device which scoops-up, sieves, spreads, and rakes the sand. Antibes' beaches east of Fort Carré (that is, going toward Nice) are still the original rough materials.

[edit] Cap d'Antibes

The southern peninsula of Antibes is known as Cap d'Antibes. A bastion of wealth and exclusivity, it was the setting for F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night. The Hotel du Cap, called Hôtel des Étrangers in the novel, is still one of the most expensive and exclusive hotels in the world.

The highest point on the Cap d'Antibes is occupied by Phare (lighthouse) de la Garoupe, constructed after retreating Nazis blew up the earlier one, and a small Roman Catholic chapel, Chapelle de la Garoupe, containing a locally famous gilded wooden statue of Notre Dame de Bonne Port (loosely, Our Lady of Safe Homecoming), and noted for the variety of ex votive offerings (see votive deposit left by sailors and their families... or sometimes their widows.

[edit] Antibes culture

[edit] Literature

Antibes was the birthplace of Jacques Audiberti (1899-1965), author.

The author Graham Greene spent the last quarter century of his life in Antibes, from 1966 to 1991. Anthony Burgess wrote a series of essays, A Homage to QWERTY, about his travels from Monaco to Antibes to interview Greene.

The novelist Nikos Kazantzakis (1883 - 1957) wrote Alexas Zorbas, on which the 1964 movie Zorba the Greek was based, while living in Antibes' old town.

[edit] Music

Interestingly, Antibes was the site of two well-regarded live jazz performances - the Charles Mingus album Mingus at Antibes and a live performance of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, which was later released with the original in a deluxe package.

There is a major jazz festival, Jazz à Juan, held every summer in Juan-les-Pins that often attracts very famous jazz musicians from the United States, France, and around the world.

The electronic music group M83 is from Antibes.

[edit] Art

The Musée Picasso, located in the mediaeval Château Grimaldi, contains Pablo Picasso's works from the year-long period he spent in Antibes.

The Musée Peynet et du Dessin Humoristique has a permanent exhibition of the works of Peynet and has temporary exhibitions of graphic arts, humor, and satire. The museum is built on the site of the Roman temple to Saturn (Cosson p.131).

The French-Russian abstract painter, Nicolas de Staël committed suicide in Antibes, 1955

Nikos Kazantzakis wrote the novel on which the 1964 motion picture Zorba the Greek was based while living in Antibes' old town.

The prolific English writer Graham Greene (he famously wrote the screenplay for the 1949 film The Third Man) lived the last almost quarter-century of his life in Antibes' old town, from 1966 until he moved to Vevey, Switzerland where he died in 1991.

[edit] Miscellaneous

Antibes is twinned with Aalborg, Denmark; Olympia, Greece; Kinsale, Republic of Ireland and Newport Beach, California, United States.

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources and references

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913. Nice

[edit] External links

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