Vence
Encyclopedia
Vence is a commune
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 set in the hills of the Alpes Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur or PACA is one of the 27 regions of France.It is made up of:* the former French province of Provence* the former papal territory of Avignon, known as Comtat Venaissin...

 region
Régions of France
France is divided into 27 administrative regions , 22 of which are in Metropolitan France, and five of which are overseas. Corsica is a territorial collectivity , but is considered a region in mainstream usage, and is even shown as such on the INSEE website...

 in southeastern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 between Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...

 and Antibes
Antibes
Antibes is a resort town in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France.It lies on the Mediterranean in the Côte d'Azur, located between Cannes and Nice. The town of Juan-les-Pins is within the commune of Antibes...

.

Population

Sights

Within the historic village, a medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 walled village, there are numerous interesting sights and monuments. The Peyra Gate was remodelled in 1810. The fountain was rebuilt in 1822 replacing an older one dating from 1578. Nearby is an oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

, donated by François I
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...

 and planted in 1538. The castle is today the Fondation Émile Hugues, a modern and contemporary art museum. The cathedral was built in the 4th century on the site of a Roman temple. The stone of the western façade dates from 239. Another, on the right, was engraved in December 220. Other stones in the external walls represent funerary dedications. Also on the western side of the church, the Pierre du Tauroble evokes the cult of Cybele
Cybele
Cybele , was a Phrygian form of the Earth Mother or Great Mother. As with Greek Gaia , her Minoan equivalent Rhea and some aspects of Demeter, Cybele embodies the fertile Earth...

  and also the Great mother of the Gods of Mount Ida
Mount Ida
In Greek mythology, two sacred mountains are called Mount Ida, the "Mountain of the Goddess": Mount Ida in Crete; and Mount Ida in the ancient Troad region of western Anatolia which was also known as the Phrygian Ida in classical antiquity and is the mountain that is mentioned in the Iliad of...

. A chapel in the cathedral has a mosaic by Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...

, dated 1911. The rue des Portiques is a section of the old Roman road.

The town has a small chapel, up above the Cité Historique Chapelle du Rosaire (1948, completed in 1951), decorated with stained glass and other fittings by Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...

.

Vence is famous for its spring water, which can be collected from numerous fountains in the town.

Personalities

  • D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930), writer
  • James Baldwin (writer)
    James Baldwin (writer)
    James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.Baldwin's essays, for instance "Notes of a Native Son" , explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th century America,...

     died in the near-by St Paul de Vence
    Saint-Paul, Alpes-Maritimes
    Saint-Paul or Saint-Paul-de-Vence is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France. One of the oldest medieval towns on the French Riviera, it is well-known for its modern and contemporary art museums and galleries such as Fondation Maeght which is located nearby.The property...

  • Maurice Boitel
    Maurice Boitel
    Maurice Boitel Maurice Boitel Maurice Boitel (July 31, 1919 – August 11, 2007 in Audresselles (Pas-de-Calais), was a French painter.-Artistic life:Maurice Boitel belonged to the art movement called "La Jeune Peinture" ("Young Picture") of the School of Paris, with painters like Bernard Buffet, Yves...

     (1919–2007), artist
  • Henri Calet (1904–1956), writer
  • Marc Chagall
    Marc Chagall
    Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...

    , artist
  • Edward Gordon Craig
    Edward Gordon Craig
    Edward Henry Gordon Craig , sometimes known as Gordon Craig, was an English modernist theatre practitioner; he worked as an actor, director and scenic designer, as well as developing an influential body of theoretical writings...

     (1872–1966), theatre practitioner
    Theatre practitioner
    Theatre practitioner is a modern term to describe someone who both creates theatrical performances and who produces a theoretical discourse that informs his or her practical work. A theatre practitioner may be a director, a dramatist, an actor, or—characteristically—often a combination of these...

    , actor
    Actor
    An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

    , producer
    Theatrical producer
    A theatrical producer is the person ultimately responsible for overseeing all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The independent producer will usually be the originator and finder of the script and starts the whole process...

    , director and scenic designer died here
  • Émile Delavenay (1901–2003), anglicist
  • Raoul Dufy
    Raoul Dufy
    Raoul Dufy[p] was a French Fauvist painter. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics and textiles, as well as decorative schemes for public buildings. He is noted for scenes of open-air social events...

    , artist
  • Célestin Freinet
    Célestin Freinet
    Célestin Freinet was a noted French pedagogue, and educational reformer.- Early life :...

    , French educator, who established his school in Vence
  • Witold Gombrowicz
    Witold Gombrowicz
    Witold Marian Gombrowicz was a Polish novelist and dramatist. His works are characterized by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and an absurd, anti-nationalist flavor...

     (1904–1969), writer, died in his home here
  • Mihály Károlyi
    Mihály Károlyi
    Count Mihály Ádám György Miklós Károlyi de Nagykároly was briefly Hungary's leader in 1918-19 during a short-lived democracy...

     (1875–1955), Hungarian leader
  • Henri Matisse
    Henri Matisse
    Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...

     (1869–1954), artist
  • Jacques
    Jacques Raverat
    Jacques Pierre Raverat was a French painter.He married the English painter Gwen Darwin, in 1911, the daughter of George Darwin and granddaughter of Charles Darwin. They had two daughters, Elisabeth , who married the Norwegian politician Edvard Hambro and Sophie who married the Cambridge scholar...

     (artist) and Gwen Raverat
    Gwen Raverat
    Gwendolen Mary "Gwen" Raverat née Darwin was a celebrated English wood engraving artist who co-founded the Society of Wood Engravers in England.- Biography :...

     (artist and writer)
  • Ida Rubinstein
    Ida Rubinstein
    Ida Lvovna Rubinstein was a Russian ballerina, actress, patron and Belle Époque figure.- Early life :Born in Kharkov, or possibly St. Petersburg,p408 into a wealthy Jewish family, Rubinstein was orphaned at an early age. She had, by the standard of Russian ballet, little formal training. Tutored...

    , ballerina
  • Émile Hugues
    Émile Hugues
    Émile Hugues was a French politician and government minister.With a doctorate in law and by profession a notaire, Hugues was elected in 1946 as a Radical-Socialist député for the Alpes-Maritimes département to the second constituent National Assembly, and subsequently to the Assemblée nationale,...

     (1901-1966), politician, was born in Vence. The art museum is named after him.

Ecclesiastical history

The first known Bishop of Vence is Severus, bishop in 439 and perhaps as early as 419.

Among others are: St. Veranus, son of St. Eucherius, Archbishop of Lyon and a monk of Lérins
Lérins Abbey
Lérins Abbey is a Cistercian monastery on the island of Saint-Honorat, one of the Lérins Islands, on the French Riviera, with an active monastic community....

, bishop before 451 and at least until 465; St. Lambert
Lambert of Vence
Lambert of Vence, also known as Lambert of Bauduen, was Bishop of Vence. Born Pelloquin Lambert, at Bauduen, France, in 1084. He lost his mother at birth and was raised at the age of twelve years the Benedictine monks of Lérins. He was appointed Bishop of Vence in 1114, and remained in the see...

, first a Benedictine monk (died 1154); Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1505–11).

Antoine Godeau
Antoine Godeau
Antoine Godeau was a French bishop, poet and exegete. He is now known for his work of criticism Discours de la poésie chrétienne from 1633.-Life:...

, Bishop of Grasse, was named Bishop of Vence in 1638; the Holy See wished to unite the two dioceses. Meeting with opposition from the chapter and the clergy of Vence Godeau left Grasse in 1653, to remain Bishop of Vence, which see he held until 1672.

The diocese of Nice now unites the three former Dioceses of Nice, Grasse and Vence.

Nursery schools

  • École Maternelle lei bigaradie
  • École Maternelle du Signadour
  • École Maternelle de l'ouest

Primary schools

  • École primaire du Suve
  • École primaire Saint-Michel
  • École primaire Toreille
  • École primaire Chagall

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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