A little history of Lympia harbour
And also
The tops
A quiet harbour
In the past, our harbour was called St-Lambert's harbour. Nowadays it’s port Lympia, named after swamps who were there in former days.
Lympia... as limpid? Because of the fresh and clear waters running into the basin?
Sure! Before the harbour creation in the 18th century, boats used to come alongside near Nice castle. Then, duke of Savoy Charles-Emmanuel III laid out the current harbour in 1750.
They immediately raised a road in order to link the harbour to the city: the chemin des Ponchettes. Then, in 1880, they extended the current harbour.
If you stroll along near the water, don’t miss the Rauba-Capeu road: the name means "hats robber" in patois, because the wind blows strongly here, and make people’s hats floating around in the air!
The statue’s cut finger
Near the harbour, we have this statue of Charles-Félix of Savoy (1830)... a statue with a finger amputated! This finder used to point the direction of the city’s free port, a place that wasn’t submissive to customs!
So when they cancelled this port, in 1854, people from Nice were angry and rebelled! The tradition says they cut the finger of this poor Félix because of that...
A thousand-years-old tree
To conclude, the legend says a very old tree was here, where they raised the harbour... a very old mulberry bush that let its name to the Mulberry street (rue du Mûrier).