Roquebrune-Cap-Martin
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin (; oc, Ròcabruna Caup Martin or ; it, Roccabruna-Capo Martino, ;
Mentonasc Mentonasc (; Mentonasco in Italian, Mentonnais or Mentonasque in French) is a Romance dialect historically spoken in and around Menton, France. It is classified as a dialect of Occitan and a sub-dialect of Vivaro-Alpine, with some strong influen ...
: ''Rocabrüna''; Roquebrune until 1921) is a
commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...
in the
Alpes-Maritimes Alpes-Maritimes (; oc, Aups Maritims; it, Alpi Marittime, "Maritime Alps") is a department of France located in the country's southeast corner, on the Italian border and Mediterranean coast. Part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, it ...
department in the
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (; or , ; commonly shortened to PACA; en, Provence-Alps-French Riviera, italic=yes; also branded as Région Sud) is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France, the far southeastern on the mainland. Its pref ...
region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
, Southeastern
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, between
Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
and
Menton Menton (; , written ''Menton'' in classical norm or ''Mentan'' in Mistralian norm; it, Mentone ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italian border. Me ...
. In 2018, it had a population of 12,824. The name was changed from Roquebrune to differentiate the town from
Roquebrune-sur-Argens Roquebrune-sur-Argens (; oc, Ròcabruna d'Argenç) is a Communes of France, commune in the Var (department), Var Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region, Southeastern France. In 2019, it had ...
in neighbouring
Var Var or VAR may refer to: Places * Var (department), a department of France * Var (river), France * Vār, Iran, village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Var, Iran (disambiguation), other places in Iran * Vár, a village in Obreja commune, Ca ...
.


History

In pre-Roman times the area was settled by the
Ligurians The Ligures (singular Ligur; Italian: liguri; English: Ligurians) were an ancient people after whom Liguria, a region of present-day north-western Italy, is named. Ancient Liguria corresponded more or less to the current Italian regi ...
. Traces of their language can be still found in the local dialect. The commune (originally known as ''Roccabruna'') was founded in 971 by Conrad I, Count of
Ventimiglia Ventimiglia (; lij, label=Intemelio, Ventemiglia , lij, label= Genoese, Vintimiggia; french: Vintimille ; oc, label= Provençal, Ventemilha ) is a resort town in the province of Imperia, Liguria, northern Italy. It is located southwest of ...
, in order to protect his western border. In 1355, Roccabruna fell under the control of the
Grimaldi family The House of Grimaldi ( , also , , ) is the current reigning house of the Principality of Monaco. The house was founded in 1160 by Grimaldo Canella in Genoa and became the ruling house of Monaco when Francesco Grimaldi captured Monaco in 1297 ...
of Monaco for five centuries, during which time the
castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
was strengthened. In 1793, Roquebrune became French for the first time, changing the name from the original Roccabruna, but it was returned to
Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
in 1814. In 1804
Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
built a road along the coastline. This road connected the village to the rest of the Côte d'Azur, and eventually led to its merger with the smaller town of Cap-Martin. In 1848, there was a revolution related to the Italian
Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...
, with the result that Roccabruna and
Menton Menton (; , written ''Menton'' in classical norm or ''Mentan'' in Mistralian norm; it, Mentone ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italian border. Me ...
became free cities under the protection of the
Savoy Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south. Savo ...
Prince. They hoped to be part of the
Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...
, but this did not occur, and the towns after two years of independence were put under Savoyan administration (but nominally still under the Prince of Monaco). They remained in a state of political limbo from 1849 until they were finally ceded to France by a
plebiscite A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
in 1861.
Giuseppe Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, patr ...
, who promoted the union of the
County of Nice The County of Nice (french: Comté de Nice / Pays Niçois, it, Contea di Nizza/Paese Nizzardo, Niçard oc, Contèa de Niça/País Niçard) is a historical region of France located around the southeastern city of Nice and roughly equivalent t ...
to
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, complained that the plebiscite was not done with "universal vote" and consequently Roccabruna was requested by Italian irredentists. From the middle of the 19th century, with the construction of the Marseille–Ventimiglia railway line, this stretch of coast also became a magnet for well-known personalities as a holiday home. Elisabeth of Austria spent several months of the last years of her life from 1894 to 1897 at the Hôtel du Cap Martin. Eugénie, widow of
Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
, owned a villa here. As a consequence of these irredentism ideals, during World War II all the coastal area between Italy and
Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...
was occupied and administered by the
Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...
until September 1943. The area became fashionable in the 1920s and 1930s leading to the construction of several notable buildings including
Coco Chanel Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel ( , ; 19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a French fashion designer and businesswoman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post-World War I era with popularizing a sporty, c ...
's La Pausa on Cap Martin, and
Eileen Gray Eileen Gray (born Kathleen Eileen Moray Smith; 9 August 187831 October 1976) was an Irish architect and furniture designer who became a pioneer of the Modern Movement in architecture. Over her career, she was associated with many notable Euro ...
and
Jean Badovici Jean Badovici (6 January 1893 – 17 August 1956) was a French architect and architecture critic of Romanian origin, active in Paris. Biography Born in Bucharest, Romania, Jean Badovici studied architecture in Paris after World War I. Since 1923 ...
's
E-1027 E-1027 is a modernist villa in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, in the Alpes-Maritimes department of France. It was designed and built from 1926-29 by the Irish architect and furniture designer Eileen Gray. L-shaped and flat-roofed with floor-to-ceiling wi ...
. The Irish poet and Nobel Laureate
William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
died in the Hôtel Idéal Séjour in the neighboring town of
Menton Menton (; , written ''Menton'' in classical norm or ''Mentan'' in Mistralian norm; it, Mentone ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italian border. Me ...
on January 28, 1939. In a letter to his wife, Yeats expressed his wish to be buried in a cemetery in Roquebrune for one year and then to be exhumed and reburied in
Drumcliff Drumcliff or Drumcliffe () is a village in County Sligo, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is 8 km (5 miles) north of Sligo, Sligo town on the N15 road (Ireland), N15 road on a low gravel ridge between the mountain of Ben Bulben and Drumcl ...
, County Sligo, Ireland. However, his exhumation was delayed until September 1948 at which point they could no longer locate his remains. According to one account, the French diplomat sent to oversee the reburial, Bernard Cailloux, said that it was "impossible to return the full and authentic remains of Mr Yeats" and proposed asking Dr Rebouillat, the local sworn pathologist, "to reconstitute a skeleton presenting all the characteristics of the deceased". The remains of several other individuals, including an Englishman named Alfred Hollis, were assembled in a coffin and sent to Ireland for reburial. The entire affair was handled with secrecy on both the part of the French delegation responsible for the burial, and the poet's family, so as not to elicit outrage from the Irish public. The incident was not publicly disclosed until the private archives of French diplomat Jacques Camílle Paris were turned over to the Irish Embassy in Paris in June 2015. The story was older than that, and was disputed by the family of the poet in a letter to
The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...
in 1988. The literary couple
Romain Gary Romain Gary (; 2 December 1980), born Roman Kacew (, and also known by the pen name Émile Ajar), was a French novelist, diplomat, film director, and World War II aviator. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt under two names. He i ...
and
Lesley Blanch Lesley Blanch, MBE, FRSL (6 June 1904, London – 7 May 2007, Garavan near Menton, France) was a British writer, historian and traveller. She is best known for '' The Wilder Shores of Love'', about Isabel Burton (who married the Arabist and ex ...
lived in Roquebrune from 1950 to 1957.
Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
built a cabanon, a minimalist architectural design. He drowned in the sea there on August 27, 1965 and was buried in the local cemetery.


Today

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin has several villages and towns: St. Roman, practically a suburb of
Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
(but not part of Monaco proper, as it does not lie within the borders of Monaco), the residential areas of Cabbé, Bon Voyage and Serret, Roquebrune with its perched village and château, the posh
Cap Martin Cape Martin (french: Cap Martin) is a headland situated in the commune of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Alpes-Maritimes ''departments of France, département'', in southern France. It is situated on the Mediterranean Sea coast between Monaco and Menton. ...
peninsula and the modern seaside resort of Carnolès, with its long pebble beach bordering Menton. The whole area has a major tourism industry, particularly during the high season from April to October.


Demographics


Culture

The local dialect actually is linguistically part of the
Mentonasque Mentonasc (; Mentonasco in Italian, Mentonnais or Mentonasque in French) is a Romance dialect historically spoken in and around Menton, France. It is classified as a dialect of Occitan and a sub-dialect of Vivaro-Alpine, with some strong influe ...
of the ''País Mentonasc'', a cultural area between the Ligurian dialects and the
Occitan language Occitan (; oc, occitan, link=no ), also known as ''lenga d'òc'' (; french: langue d'oc) by its native speakers, and sometimes also referred to as ''Provençal'', is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Ital ...
. Since 1861 the use of the
French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...
has increased enormously in the city, and now only a minority of the 11,692 inhabitants still speaks the original dialect of ''Roccabruna''.


Sport

Despite its name, the
Monte Carlo Country Club Monte Carlo Country Club (MCCC) is the home of the ATP's Monte Carlo Masters tournament. It is also the base of the Monte Carlo Tennis Academy. Despite the club's name, it is not located in Monte Carlo or even in Monaco: it is actually located i ...
is located in the commune and not in
Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...
, Monaco. It is the venue for the tennis
Monte-Carlo Masters The Monte-Carlo Masters is an annual tennis tournament for male professional players held in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, a commune that borders on Monaco. The event is part of the ATP Tour Masters 1000 on the Association of Tennis Professiona ...
.


International relations

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin is twinned with: *
Profondeville Profondeville (; wa, Parfondveye) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Namur, Belgium. On January 1, 2016, Profondeville had a total population of 12,117. The total area of the municipality is and the population density is ...
,
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
*
Vejle Vejle () is a city in Denmark, in the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula at the head of Vejle Fjord, where the Vejle River and Grejs River and their valleys converge. It is the site of the councils of Vejle Municipality ('' kommune'') and the R ...
,
Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...


Honorary citizens

People awarded the
honorary citizenship Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction. The honour usually is symbolic and does not confer an ...
of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin are:


See also

* List of historical unrecognized states *
Former countries in Europe after 1815 This article gives a detailed listing of all the countries, including puppet states, that have existed in Europe since the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to the present day. Each country has information separated into columns: name of the distinct cou ...
*
Grotte du Vallonnet Grotte du Vallonnet is an archaeological site located near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, between Monaco and Menton, in France, that was first discovered in 1958. Stone tools found at the site have been dated to between 1 and 1.05 million years old, mak ...
*
Han van Meegeren Henricus Antonius "Han" van Meegeren (; 10 October 1889 – 30 December 1947) was a Dutch painter and portraitist, considered one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century. Van Meegeren became a national hero after World War II when ...
, the well-known art-forger lived in Roquebrune and painted here his famous Vermeer fake ''
Supper at Emmaus According to the Gospel of Luke, the road to Emmaus appearance is one of the early post-resurrection appearances of Jesus after his crucifixion and the discovery of the empty tomb. Both the meeting on the road to Emmaus and the subsequent suppe ...
''


References


External links


Roquebrune-Cap-Martin official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roquebrunecapmartin Communes of Alpes-Maritimes French Riviera France–Monaco border crossings 970 establishments 1848 establishments in France 1861 disestablishments in Europe Former unrecognized countries Former countries in Europe Former republics Ligurian language (Romance) States and territories established in 1848 10th-century establishments in France