Riviera Pebbles Blog: Galeries Lympia, Nice

Posted on 16th Nov 2018 in Go & Do

Galerie Lympia: prison to arthouse

Nice’s newest art space has a history as colourful as the city itself. The Galerie Lympia started life as a bathhouse for the French military, replete with the vaulted ceilings of a Turkish hammam. As Nice passed to Genoese control, the latter rulers added an Italianate clock tower. By 1860 the Riviera capital was French once again. Les Français flipped the complex into a dank prison, which in 2017 became an unlikely venue for gloriously uplifting art.

Temporary exhibitions focus on Niçois names. Such as photographer Raph Gatti, who shot every visiting Cote d’Azur celebrity during the 1970s including Alfred Hitchcock and Agatha Christie. Plus Raymond Depardon, whose black and white prints make rural must-sees, like the Gorges du Verdon and Mercantour National Park, sing with colour. Depardon’s range also encompasses Corsica - an island easily reached via the Corsica Ferries which depart 100m from the Galerie Lympia entrance.

Galerie Lympia, Nice