This guide covers three places in and around Old Nice (Vieux-Nice): the Tour Saint-François, the bell tower of a former Franciscan convent; the Chapelle de la Visitation Sainte-Claire, a chapel and convent on the slope of the castle hill; and the Jardin Albert-Ier, one of the oldest public gardens in the city, between Place Masséna and the sea. All three are stops on our Nice scavenger hunt, and together they show how the town grew from convents and narrow lanes down to gardens laid out over the River Paillon.
Tour Saint-François
The Franciscans came to Nice in the 13th century. By tradition they first settled in 1239 in a convent east of the port, and about eleven years later their superior, Raymond Ricardi, had a new convent built at the foot of the castle hill, on land given by a miller named Augier Badat. That convent stood on what is now Place Saint-François, on the northern edge of the old town, and its domed bell tower was added in 1722. After Nice came under French rule in 1792 the friars were expelled, and the buildings were used as a guardhouse, law courts and a health office; Napoleonic troops later kept horses in part of the site.
The tower survived because the town needed it. In 1798 the commune kept it to carry a public clock, at a time when Nice had only one. The project dragged on for decades: a clock was proposed in 1813, and in 1837 the architect Joseph Vernier designed a square upper storey for it and a small campanile for the bell. The clock was made in Morez, in the Jura, and after a faulty first bell, the one finally hung came from a foundry in Genoa and was paid for partly by donations. Today the tower is about 41 metres high. The city has bought back the old convent complex piece by piece, and the convent, the old communal palace beside it and the tower have been under restoration in stages since 2016, so check what you can visit inside.
- The clock storey and the little campanile on top: the 1830s additions that gave the 18th-century tower a new job.
- Place Saint-François itself, renovated in 2018 and 2019, with the old communal palace on one side.
- A link to the friars' past elsewhere in town: the cross that friar Louis Terrini set up in the convent cemetery in 1477 is the one now known as the Croix de Cimiez.
Chapelle de la Visitation Sainte-Claire
Higher up, on Rue Sainte-Claire, where the old town climbs the castle hill, stands a chapel with a former convent, a public washhouse and a garden behind it. Poor Clare nuns had the chapel built in the early 17th century: the date 1609 is carved on its corner, and 1669 on the corner of the convent they added later. The convent was closed during the French Revolution. After the Restoration, King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia, who ruled Nice again, gave the buildings to the nuns of the Visitation, who renamed the site the Visitation-Sainte-Claire. In 1828 they had the fresco painter Giuseppe Toselli decorate the interior.
The Visitation nuns left in 1960 and the city bought the complex. When restoration began in 1985, there was no record of the old facade, so the artists Patrice Giuge and Marc Lavalle designed a new one in the classical style, borrowing Toselli's ornaments. The chapel and the former convent are listed historic monuments, and the convent has been turned into a hotel, which opened in June 2024. Don't confuse this chapel with the Chapelle de la Visitation, also called the Providence chapel, on Rue Saint-Augustin nearby: it is an older convent chapel, used by the same religious orders before they moved here, and today it is a local cultural centre.
- The painted facade in warm Sienna earth colours: the pediment above the door is trompe-l'oeil, not carved stone.
- The portraits of Saint Clare and Saint Joseph on either side of the entrance, and the fluted pilasters around them.
- The dates 1609 and 1669 cut into the corners of the chapel and the convent.
Jardin Albert-Ier
The Jardin Albert-Ier lies between Place Masséna and the Promenade des Anglais and is one of the oldest public gardens in Nice. It began as a garden for winter visitors on marshy ground at the mouth of the Paillon, the river that runs through the city. It was levelled and planted in 1852 in the Italian style, on about a hectare, with horse chestnuts, elms, lime trees, mimosas and umbrella pines. As the river was walled in and then covered over, the garden grew: a new quay in 1863 let it spread onto the old riverbed, and covering the Paillon in 1890 gave it its present size, with French lawns, winding English paths and mostly palms and subtropical trees.
Its name dates from 1914, when the city named it after Albert I, King of the Belgians, to honour his stand against the German ultimatum at the start of the First World War. The garden's main monument is older: the Centenary Monument (Monument du Centenaire), put up in 1892 for the hundredth anniversary of Nice's first union with France in 1792 and inaugurated in 1896 by President Félix Faure. Both the garden and the Centenary Monument are stops on our scavenger hunt. In the middle of the garden is an open-air theatre, the Théâtre de Verdure, built in 1946 and still used for concerts.
Two small stories from its past: in 1854 the writer Alphonse Karr opened a shop on the garden selling bouquets, fruit and vegetables, and until the 1960s children could ride along the paths in wooden carts pulled by donkeys, until growing car traffic put an end to it. Today the garden is a favourite place for a rest on a bench and hosts a book festival every year.
- Arc 115.5°, the 19-metre metal arc by Bernar Venet on the central lawn, installed in 1988; its twin, Arc 124.5°, stands in Berlin.
- The Fontaine des Tritons, a fountain that was already part of the garden in the 1890s.
- The statues of Tragedy and Dance by the sculptor Victor Nicolas, flanking the stage of the Théâtre de Verdure.
How to see them in one walk
Start at Place Garibaldi, the arcaded square on the northern edge of the old town, where our scavenger hunt also begins. Walk into the old town to Place Saint-François and the Tour Saint-François, then climb the lanes to Rue Sainte-Claire and the Chapelle de la Visitation Sainte-Claire. Come back down past Nice Cathedral to the Cours Saleya and the Opéra, then follow the Promenade du Paillon, the park laid out over the river, to Place Masséna and the Fontaine du Soleil. The Jardin Albert-Ier is right next to the square, on the way to the sea, so you can end the walk on a bench under the palms or on the Promenade des Anglais.
See Nice with World City Trail
Our Nice scavenger hunt turns the old town into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, from Place Garibaldi to the Jardin Albert-Ier, and the Tour Saint-François, the Chapelle de la Visitation Sainte-Claire and the Jardin Albert-Ier are all stops, along with Nice Cathedral, the Cours Saleya, the Opéra, the Promenade du Paillon, the Fontaine du Soleil and the Centenary Monument. At each stop you solve a puzzle and learn a story, at your own pace.
There is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Nice, for people who prefer a different format.
Play the Nice scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Nice →
Play the outdoor escape game in Nice →
Facts checked in October 2026.