The Nice Observatory: 5 Things To Know About This Exceptional Site
The Nice Observatory, located on Mont Gros in a park of about forty hectares, is classified as a historical monument. This building, born from the combined talents of architect Charles Garnier and Gustave Eiffel, is one of the world's centers dedicated to the knowledge of the universe. Here are 5 things to know about this exceptional site.
1- It was created by a philanthropist passionate about astronomy.
The Nice Observatory was founded in 1881 on the hill of Mont Gros, a site chosen at the time for the quality of its sky. The city of Nice owes its construction to a private patron: Raphaël-Louis Bischoffsheim.
Starting in 1878, the banker Raphaël Bischoffsheim, a philanthropist passionate about astronomy, decided "to raise a lasting monument worthy of French Science."
2- Its dome was designed by Gustave Eiffel.
For this project, Raphaël Bischoffsheim enlisted the architect Charles Garnier, who designed the original 15 buildings of the Nice Observatory.
As for the famous white dome housing the main telescope, it is the work of engineer Gustave Eiffel. At the time of its construction, it was the largest movable dome in the world.
The building, constructed from La Turbie cut stone, consists of a square base on which rests the circular wall supporting the dome. The dome, with an outer diameter of 24 meters, weighs nearly 100 tons.
It is larger than that of the Pantheon in Paris, but it was designed to rotate thanks to an ingenious flotation system devised by Gustave Eiffel!
3- It houses a revolutionary astronomical telescope for its time.
The famous dome of the Nice Observatory houses a 60-foot-long astronomical telescope, equipped with a lens 76 cm in diameter.
When it was commissioned in 1887, this telescope was the largest and most powerful in the world. It was surpassed the following year by the telescope at the Lick Observatory in California, which has a lens 91 cm in diameter.
The large telescope of the Nice Observatory was one of the largest instruments of its time and contributed to astronomical discoveries. Thanks to it, 2000 new double stars were discovered in Nice.
4- The Nice Observatory is a research center.
Upon the death of Raphaël Bischoffsheim, the Nice Observatory was bequeathed to the Sorbonne and began a slow decline until the 1960s.
The instruments were then put back into service, and the large Eiffel dome as well as the astronomical telescope were renovated for the first time.
In 1988, the Nice Observatory merged with the Center for Studies in Geodynamics and Astrometry (CERGA) in Grasse to form a public institution: the Côte d'Azur Observatory.
Today, the Mont-Gros site is no longer dedicated to observing the universe due to light pollution and its outdated telescope. However, it remains an active research center in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics.
5- It is a historical monument worth visiting.
The Nice Observatory, located in the heart of 40 hectares of greenery, offers the public guided tours all year round.
Today, all the buildings of the Nice Observatory and the different telescopes (the large equatorial, the bent equatorial, and the small equatorial) are classified as historical monuments.
Whether you are an astronomy enthusiast, an architecture lover, or simply curious, you will enjoy strolling on this hill in Nice and discovering the exceptional setting of the observatory. From the top of Mont Gros, you will enjoy a breathtaking panorama of the Baie des Anges.
