Nice - Hotel Negresco
- department: Alpes-Maritimes
- municipality: Nice
- naming: Negresco Hotel
- address: 37 promenade des Anglais, rue Cronstadt, 1 rue du Commandant-Beretta, rue de Rivoli
- author: Edouard-Jean NIERMANS (architect)
- date: 1912
- protection: Classification of historical monuments by order of 13 June 2003
- label patrimoine XXe: Circular of 1 March 2001
Located on the Promenade des Anglais, opposite the Baie des Anges, the Hotel Négresco is the work of the Parisian architect of Dutch origin Edouard Niermans (1859-1928), specialist in the construction of this type of establishment. It is one of the last palaces of the Belle Epoque on the French Riviera to have kept since its creation its original function.
It owes its name to its sponsor Henri Négresco, son of a Romanian innkeeper, born in Bucharest in 1868. When he came to Paris where he became butler, he was then able to create his own house on the French Riviera, thanks to the support of financier Albert Darracq, industrial co-founder of the automobile firm Darracq-Talbot.
Donated by Niermans in 1911, the plans were reviewed by Négresco according to the tastes of the rich European clientele. The opening took place in January 1913, on the eve of the war. The hotel had 420 rooms with all the comforts of the time, with antechamber and private bathroom.
The party closely follows the contours of the available plot, in the shape of a diamond. Four bodies of the same height surround an elliptical inner courtyard covered by a canopy, crossed by the diagonal axis connecting the opposite roundhouses. The architecture bears witness to the meeting between the classical styles of the 18th century and the technical advances of the early 20th century.
The façades and roofs of the hotel itself have been listed since 1975. The classification covers all the facades and roofs of all the buildings overlooking the four streets (hotel and condominium building) and the inner courtyard, as well as the large central hall of the hotel said royal lounge, with its glass roof, which occupies this inner courtyard.
- Editor: Jean Marx, drac paca crmh, 2003