Park South

The station of the South is a currently unused Gare located at Nice (the Alpes-Maritimes) in France. This station is the old terminus of the line with metric gauge Track of the Railroads of Provence which connects Nice to Worthy-the-Baths (Alp-of-High-Provence).

Description and history of the station

The construction of the station, carried out by the architect Prosper Bobin on behalf of the Compagnie of the railroads of the South of France started in 1890 and was completed in June 1892. The frontage of the station has a monumental and imposing aspect, with a high central house and two side houses. A large metal marchioness covered the ways which came then from Grasse and Puget-Théniers. The connection towards Annot and Digne was only open in 1911.

The building travellers was built in neo-classic style, with a saving in means but without compromise on elegance. The canopy comes from the house of Russia and Austria-Hungary of the World Fair of 1889 to Paris. It was classified in 2005.

After the Second world war, the line of Meyrargues remained closed, only taking again the exploitation of Nice-Worthy. The Railroads of Provence closed the station of the South in December 1991 and transferred the terminus from the line in a new station minimalist located a little upstream on the line.

The building was sold by the State with the commune of Nice in the year 2000, which envisaged to demolish the metal market and its canopy, and to dismount the frontage. This project raised many protests and finally the Minister for the Culture, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres was opposed there in 2004.

Projects

If the building from now on is saved destruction, its future remains very dubious. Several projects were erected scaffolding, like the installation of artistic associations in the search of a shelter or that discussed of the transfer of the town hall of Nice on the site of the station.

Indeed, following the failure of the project of 2000, the city required the architect Pierre-Louis Faloci a new project which preserves the totality of the building of the travellers as well as the metal market. This project was the subject of an agreement of the Ministry for the culture on May 12th, 2005, and envisages to surmount the station of a vast hood, a " ombrière" , which would be covered with 2.000 m ² of solar panels producing electricity. The project also includes/understands the realization of a Médiathèque, of a sports complex, to rehabilitate the school of visual arts and to create a carpark of 1300 places.

Notes and references of the article

Random links: