In
the heart of the Côte d’Azur, beautifully located at the foot of the
crystalline foothills of the Southern Alps and just a few minutes from
Nice-Côte d’Azur International Airport, Antibes Juan-les-Pins boasts one
of the largest coastal areas in France, with its 25 kilometres of
coastline.
A modern and enterprising city, as evidenced by Sophia-Antipolis and its
avant-garde technological hubs, endowed with a prestigious past, it has
remained a city to live in for everyone and everybody: a city of the
future and of a particularly dynamic present.
The
history of Antibes Juan-les-Pins dates back several millennia.
Ligurians, Ionians, Phoenicians and Etruscans all knew this exceptional
site, before the Greeks created a trading post there in the fifth
century BC that they named Antipolis.
Showered
with privileges by the Romans, Antibes, a pontifical and royal city and
the last French stronghold before the County of Nice and Italy,
occupies a highly strategic position. Louis XIV entrusted the city’s
development to Vauban, who drew up plans for the new ramparts and made
some improvements to the Fort-Carré, originally built by Henry II.
The
20th century would see the city undergo exceptional expansion, after
the attachment of the County of Nice to France, the creation of the
Alpes-Maritimes department and the demolition of part of the old
ramparts, which prevented the city from evolving.
Revolutionary
technological changes, such as the railway and the automobile, the
creation of the seaside resort of Juan-les-Pins and the prodigious
tourist boom of the Côte d’Azur have come together to transform ancient
Antipolis into the second city of the Alpes-Maritimes, rich in its
exceptional past and future.
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