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Origin and history

The Saint-Hospice Tower, sometimes mistakenly called the Genoese Tower, stands on the eponymous tip at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (Alpes-Maritimes). It replaces a fort built around 1610 and destroyed in 1706 by order of Louis XIV after the siege of Nice. This fort was part of a defensive system of the County of Nice, initiated by the Duke Emmanuel-Philibert after the siege of 1543, including the castle of Nice and the citadel of Villefranche-sur-Mer. Problems of financing delayed its construction, probably completed between 1608 and 1616.

The present tower, built around 1745-1750, reused stones from the destroyed fort and perhaps incorporated an older 14th century structure. Designed to house 40 soldiers, it included a ground floor (guard and kitchen) and two floors of housing. In 1903 a statue of the Virgin and Child, carved in the tower by Tranquillo Galbusieri and offered by Auguste Gal, was temporarily installed there before being moved in 1937 near the neighbouring chapel, after the military opposition.

Ranked a historic monument in 1931, the tower was acquired by private owners, including Jacques Menier, who built an adjacent villa there. Its architecture reflects the strategic stakes of the Nice coastal defence, between Savoyard and French influences. Today, it remains a testimony to the historical conflicts in the Mediterranean and to the evolution of the fortified landscape of the region.

The 1706 text of a Nice resident describes the systematic destruction of local fortifications, saving only the Saint-Hospice tower among the works of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. This document illustrates the desire of Louis XIV to weaken the Niçois defences after the conquest of the County, then integrated into the Kingdom of France.

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