NICE, DIOCESE of - City and diocese, capital of the prefecture of the department of Alpes-Maritimes in France.
The diocese extends over the entire civil department of the Alpes Maritimes. It has 525,000 inhabitants, of whom 350,000 are Catholics, distributed in 240 parishes, served by 330 diocesan priests and 90 regulars, one seminary, 19 male religious communities and 123 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 290).
It is the ancient Nitria of pre-Roman origin; the hill above the Bay of Angels was occupied by Greek colonists from Marseilles and the port enjoyed commercial development. The magistrates of Marseilles were represented at N. by an official called episcopus (CIL, V, 7914); but N. was known only as a port. At the same time Cemeleum developed, a town of the Ligurian Vedianti, in which the Romans replaced the natives. Thus Cemenelum flourished from Augustus to Diocletian, who moved the capital to Ebrodunum (CIL, V, p. 903). Cemenelum was destroyed by the Saxons in 573 (St. Gregory of Tours, in Hist. Franc., IV, 42). It had an amphitheater and baths (G. De Angelis d'Ossat, Un disegno di S. Gallo relativo alle terme di Cimella presso N., in Riv. di studi liguri, I [1942], pp. 20-24). Excavations were carried out in 1791, in 1860-80 and in 1943. Cemenelum disappeared in the 12th century.
The first known bishop is Amantius, present at the Council of Aquileia in 581. Pope Leo I, after 450, united the two sees of Cimiez and N. Shortly after the Roman Council of 19 Nov. 462, Pope Hilarius separated them again, but soon re-established the union in 465; in fact Bishop Magnus at the Council of Orléans in 549 signed as episcopus Cemeleensis et Nicaensis, and at the Synod of Arles in 554 as episcopus Cemeleensis because N. was still considered, as in the time of Hilarius, a castellum, while Cimiez was a civitas. Only after the Lombards destroyed Cimiez did N. become the seat of the civitas and of the diocese. Other known bishops were Ostadius, mentioned by Gregory of Tours, around the year 581 (Hist. Franc., VI, 6), Catullinus around the year 585, and Abraham, present at the Council of Paris in 614. N. was ceded by Victor Emmanuel II to France on 24 March 1860. The bishop of N. holds the title of count of Drap. Within its territory are found the suppressed dioceses of Antibes, Cimiez, Grasse, Sospel and Vence. The diocese is a suffragan of Aix.
The ancient Cathedral was dedicated to St. Mary Assumed; but, damaged by war, in the 17th century it was transferred to the church of St. Reparata; Pius XII (1949) restored to the Cathedral its ancient Marian title, establishing that the sacred building be dedicated to the B. M. Virgin assumed into heaven and to St. Reparata virgin and martyr, elevating it to the dignity of minor basilica (AAS, 33 [1950], pp. 545-47). Other churches are: the church of St-Jaume, parish of the Italians, from the end of the 17th century; of Notre-Dame, in Gothic style (1880-
1890); of St. Augustine (17th century), of St. Francis of Paola (1736), in local Baroque. The abbey of St-Pons, near Cimiez (8th-9th century), is a foundation attributed to Charlemagne (R. Latouche, Nice et Cimiez, in Mélanges F. Lot, Paris 1925; C. Salvetti, Essai historique sur l'abbaye de St-Pons de Nice, Nice 1925). At 14 km. from N. is the greatly venerated sanctuary of the Madonna of Laghetto, at 340 m. above the sea, in an Umbrian landscape.
Among the museums are remembered: the Museum of ancient and modern art or Musée Jules Cherer, arranged since 1927 in the old Thomson villa; the Massena Museum or Musée du Vieux Nice in the Rivoli Palace, from the end of the 19th century.
For Cimeleum, the first known bishop is Valerianus, present at the Councils of Riez (439) and of Vaison (442). The Christian community is attested by two inscriptions found there (CIL, V, 7977-78). The abbey, founded at the end of the 8th century, was annexed to the church, which later became a cathedral, near which a treasure of coins was found ranging from the Merovingians to the Carolingians. At Grasse, the ancient Cathedral (Notre-Dame) dates from the end of the 12th century and marks the beginning of Gothic in Provence. It is in limestone with three naves without transept with Lombard influences. At Sospel, of the ancient cathedral of St. Michael only the Romanesque-Lombard bell tower is preserved. Vence, a diocese suppressed in 1790, had among its bishops St. Veranus (d. 492), St. Lambert (d. 1154), Alessandro Farnese, later Paul III; Msgr. Godeaux and Msgr. Gurian. The ancient Cathedral is from the 12th century, while the tribune and the minor naves are from the 17th century. There are preserved the tombs of the holy bishops Veranus (in a 5th-century sarcophagus) and Lambert.
After the Treaty of peace with Italy, the populations of Tenda, Briga, S. Dalmazzo, Pieno and Molières were detached from the dioceses of Ventimiglia and of Cuneo and annexed to that of N.