One can say the Parc du Chateau has a long history and they won’t be too far from truth. To follow the history of the park itself it is needed to leave the years of glamour of the citadel behind and start from the entire demolition of the massive defense construction – that was thought to be impregnable – by the King of France Louis XIV in 1706. After the demolition of the castle the hill, together with the city that was under the protection of this building, were left open and unprotected from enemies. Tragic as this lack of protection might have looked once, it turned to have a positive influence on Nice as it became the reason to invent holiday tourism, which is one of the main industries if the city till today.

The idea of turning the hill into a place for relaxation dawned on King Charles-Felix, who noticed how people liked the bucolic atmosphere and the peace there. The King’s project was to yield the ground to the City Council under the condition that they manage a public place for strolling. In 1828, the City Council entrusted the responsibility of making a park out of the property to the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture. A renowned member of this organization was the naturalist Antoine Risso and it was his task to deal with the putting the site under timber and also to plant it with many exotic and aromatic plants. The successors of Risso François Bottieri and Baron Louis Milonis de Touet finished his work and presented the ready park facility to the town in 1858. The park was further embellished by the rebuilding of the old Saint-Elme tower, called Clerissi tower (by the name of its owner). Later on, in 1844 the Bellanda tower was also rehabilitated completely in the spirit of romantic landscape decorations. In 1885 the ruins of the citadel were transformed into a decorative cascade, which was also used to serve the basins of the first modern water conveyance system of Nice, that of Peillon-Sainte-Thècle, built in 1864 – 1867.

Thanks to the idea of King Charles-Felix nowadays Nice citizens and the visitors of the city have one of their wonderful green facilities where they can have a bit of rest and calmness. The two-hectare large Parc du Chateau offers more than eleven kilometers of walking alleys under the shade of the trees. The hill’s spontaneous vegetation primarily consists of leafy trees and some conifers, the remarkable rupestral vegetation that colonizes the abrupt rock of the hill and also many introduced species decorate the plate of the park. Much is added to the natural charm of the place by the wonderful water cascades. Another remarkable feature of the Park of the Castle is the Fountain with the Birds, as well as the Navy Museum that is a sight of itself. But visiting the park one must not forget to pay attention to the Belanda Tower and the ancient ruins of the castle because those two constructions remember much of the historical events connected to the city of Nice.