Former Senate Nice - old baroque building a stone's throw from the bustling Cours Saleya. There administer the sovereign power of the old Nice, has not become a plaything of the great powers, there was proclaimed the annexation of the city of France. This is not too noticeable mansion now found evidence of the power and prosperity of the medieval city.

Own The Senate gave Nice in 1614 Duke Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy - energetic ruler, a brilliant soldier and diplomat. In fact it was the Prefecture, and the Supreme Court for the District. In 1655, for them close to the chapel of the Holy Trinity and the Holy Shroud was built a beautiful three-story building in the Genoese style, with arcades along the long side of the facade and balcony. It housed the president of the Senate, the senators, the bailiffs.

September 28th, 1792, they fled the city - were coming to Nice revolutionary French troops. The Senate was restored only in 1814, after the collapse of the empire of Bonaparte. However, the interest of France to the Cote d'Azur is not lost. In 1860, Emperor Napoleon III, after secret negotiations concluded with the Kingdom of Sardinia Turin a contract in which she ceded the county Nice France in exchange for help in the fight against Austria.

To keep up appearances, held a plebiscite in which the people of Nice were to express their attitude to transition into French citizenship. Speak "for" them solemnly asked the King of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel II, vehemently against a native of Nice Giuseppe Garibaldi. Two local newspapers campaigned against the annexation, one - for. The vast majority of residents supported the annexation. Her critics (and they are still here) indicate that the voices of opponents considered only if the voter could give "oral explanation" its decision. Few residents said then in French.

It was in the palace of the Senate and was solemnly proclaimed the political annexation of Nice to officially withdrew France June 14, 1860.

From 1860 to 1892 the building housed the Palace of Justice. Then came other times: banker Jules Gilly founded a rooming house (now the name of a benefactor named street, which leaves the Senate). Social center existed here until the present day, when, during the restoration work under the old building were discovered the remains of the powerful fortifications of the thirteenth century. Now archaeologists continue excavations here, leaving more and more in the thickness of time.