Église du Gèsu, Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur

The Église du Gèsu, Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur stands in the old town of Nice, a Baroque church with a Corinthian facade. Its campanile rises forty-two metres in exposed brick, a material rare in Nice but common in Piedmontese work. Ligurian tiles sheathe the base of the dome, and the whole design echoes the Church of the Gesù in Rome.

The story begins in 1603 with a gift from Pons Neva, a wealthy merchant of Nice then living in Rome. At Philippe Néri's suggestion he paid for a Jesuit school, and the brothers laid the church's own cornerstone in June 1612. Main construction ran from 1642 to 1650, and the attribution stays open between Jean-André Guiberto and Alessio di Angelis. The Jesuits remained until 1773, when Pope Clement XIV suppressed their order and the school and church passed to the crown. After the Concordat of 1801 it became a parish under Saint James the Greater. Aycart finished the Baroque facade you see today in 1825.

Inside, a semicircular vault runs thirty-six metres long and fourteen metres wide. Its paintings show scenes from the life of the patron saint, after drawings by the local painter Hercule Trachel. Trachel also painted the vaults of the monastery church at Cimiez. Outside, the surrounding lanes hold markets, shops and more Baroque buildings. The brick and the tiles spell out Nice's place at the crossroads between Provence and Italy.