Vence

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Nativity

Built on the site of an ancient Roman temple and later a Carolingian church, its architecture and furnishings reflect the incredible wealth of Vence’s heritage.

You will admire a 5th-century Gallo-Roman sarcophagus and the tomb of Saint Véran. On some pillars and in the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, there is an ornamentation of magnificent Carolingian carved plaques, with beautiful openwork settings.

Not to be missed is a precious mosaic by Marc Chagall, depicting Moses saved from the waters. With this priceless gift, the artist, who lived in Vence from 1950 to 1966, gave the town a work of infinite poetry.

Matisse Chapel

Built in 1951, the Rosary Chapel, better known as the Matisse Chapel, was entirely designed and decorated by Henri Matisse for the Dominican nuns. Realised during his stay in Vence, the building is distinguished by its unmistakable roof of blue and white tiles and its wrought-iron cross thirteen metres high.

A stone’s throw from the town’s historic centre, this religious building houses important creations by the artist such as the stained-glass windows composed of plant motifs in yellow, green and blue, which let in the sun’s rays by illuminating the large black-striped paintings, the white ceramics depicting the Stations of the Cross, the Virgin and Child and Saint Dominic.

Inside the museum space, you can also admire all of Henri Matisse’s preparatory works: drawings, engravings, models, photos, texts and liturgical vestments, while contemplating the breathtaking panorama of the town of Vence and the Côte d’Azur.

Old Vence

To admire the historical heart of Vence, we recommend you start at Porte du Peyra, which allows you to enter the 13th-century city walls and leads to Place du Peyra where there is a beautiful fountain.

Continue past the Château de Villeneuve and the watchtower to Place du Marché, where the stables once stood and which now houses small food shops.

Passing through rue Alsace-Lorraine, you reach Place Clémenceau and the Romanesque cathedral, inside which is the 1979 mosaic of Moses by Chagall.

Witolda Gombrowicza Museum

The Witold Gombrowicz Museum Space was opened on 23 September 2017 in the Villa Alexandrine, the same villa where the Polish writer lived from 1964 to 1969 with his wife Rita. The 1911 Belle Époque-style villa, purchased by the municipality in 1988, was redeveloped with the valuable support of the Polish state.

The exhibition highlights the complex and ambiguous personality of the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz, a destroyer of the ideals and intellectual stereotypes of his time. The reading of selected excerpts from his works introduces us into the universe of Gombrowicz’s thought as he reveals, explains and comments on the mysteries of his art.

Using intellectual provocations, fictions or fantasies, borrowing different postures, putting on and taking off masks, this iconoclastic author forces the spectator to take a step back and enter with him into a game contrary to mass mythology and exalting the rights of the individual.

Ramparts of Vence

The ramparts of Vence form an elliptical enclosure with five gates. They are easily identifiable on the city plan, as two avenues follow their route.

To the north, Boulevard Paul-André preserves large original sections of the ramparts, which offer splendid views of the Baous and the foothills of Grasse and Nice.