Today I’ve chosen a more local doorway, that of l’Eglise Saint-François-de-Paule in Nice’s Old Town. Its construction, and that of the adjoining monastery, took place between 1722 and 1723 on the orders of the the Minims, mendicant friars bound by a vow of poverty and dedicated to an ascetic way of life. The church’s façade, created in 1773, bears the Minim motto Charitas (charity) in a radiant medallion. The Minims disappeared during the French Revolution and the Dominican’s took over the church.
Its frontage is typically neo-classical with a few additional baroque elements. Its interior is relatively stark with a single nave softened by the use of double arches for the vaults and its horseshoe semicircle for the choir. These architectural features echo those of the Chiesa del Carmine in Turin, designed by Filippo Juvara. In particular, the grey coating covering all of the walls and the vault makes this Niçois church resemble buildings in Turin and harks back to Piedmont’s former ownership of Nice.
