Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The communal palace of Nice, the current headquarters of the Bourse du Travail, was originally built between 1574 and 1580 to house the city council, moved from the upper town to the lower city after the extension of the castle fortifications. Its sober facade, without ornament, reflected a utility architecture. The building, in the shape of L inverted, was inaugurated in 1584 on a group of houses acquired near the Franciscan convent.

In the 17th century, the Nice consuls began to embellish the palace. In 1670, the architect ducal Jean-André Guiberto intervened, although his precise achievements remain unknown. In 1679 Marc-Antoine Grigho, architect of the prince of Monaco, added an interior staircase with straight flights, a vaulted vestibule and a monumental portal in Tuscan marble, carved by the Monegasques Dominique and François Mulciano between 1680 and 1684. Grigho also altered the windows of the side façade, marking a first phase of decorative enrichment.

In 1758 Ignazio Agliaudi di Tavigliano, a disciple of Filippo Juvarra, designed a new baroque façade for the entrance wing, inspired by the Turin palaces. This project, which was to include four statues never made because of a conflict with the mason Pietro Bensa in 1760, introduced ionic pilasters, relief motifs and a balustrade, typical of the Piedmont Baroque. These transformations reflected the architectural influence of Turin, the then capital of the Sardinian states.

The palace experienced political upheavals: vandalized in 1792 by revolutionary French troops, it was temporarily transformed into a school under the Consulate. Restored as a town hall in 1814 during the Sardinian Restoration, he saw Nice's vow in 1832 and received a clock in 1840. The city council finally left him in 1868 for the former hospital Saint-Roch.

After becoming the Labour Exchange in 1893, the building was occupied by the CGT for more than a century. Ranked a historic monument in 1949, its facades were renovated in 1978 with public subsidies. In 2009, an agreement between the municipality and the CGT allowed its transfer against new premises, revealing a degraded internal state. Remains of the 13th century Franciscan church remain at the back of the palace.

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