Roquebrune-Cap-Martin

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin (Occitan: Ròcabruna Caup Martin, Italian: Roccabruna-Capo Martino) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France between Monaco and Menton. The name was changed from Roquebrune to differentiate the town from Roquebrune-sur-Argens in the neighboring Var department.[2]

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin

Ròcabruna Caup Martin  (Occitan)
Commune
The old village, the cape and the bay of Roquebrune
Flag
Coat of arms
Location of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin
Roquebrune-Cap-Martin
Roquebrune-Cap-Martin
Coordinates: 43°45′46″N 7°27′47″E
CountryFrance
RegionProvence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
DepartmentAlpes-Maritimes
ArrondissementNice
CantonMenton
IntercommunalityRiviera française
Government
 • Mayor (2008–2014) Patrick Césari
Area
1
9.33 km2 (3.60 sq mi)
Population
 (2017-01-01)[1]
12,639
 • Density1,400/km2 (3,500/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code
06104 /06190
Elevation0–800 m (0–2,625 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

History

In pre-Roman times the area was settled by the Ligurians. Traces of their language can be still found in the local dialect. The commune (originally known as Roccabruna) was founded in 971 by Conrad I, count of Ventimiglia, in order to protect his western border.

In 1355, Roccabruna fell under the control of the Grimaldi family of Monaco for five centuries, during which time the castle was strengthened.

In 1793, Roquebrune became French for the first time, changing the name from the original Roccabruna, but it was returned to Monaco in 1814. In 1804 Napoleon built a road along the coastline. This road connected the village to the rest of the Côte d'Azur, and eventually led to its merger with the smaller town of Cap-Martin.

In 1848, there was a revolution related to the Italian Risorgimento, with the result that Roccabruna and Menton became free cities under the protection of the Savoy Prince. They hoped to be part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, but this did not occur, and the towns after two years of independence were put under Savoyan administration (but nominally still under the Prince of Monaco). They remained in a state of political limbo from 1849 until they were finally ceded to France by a plebiscite in 1861.

Map of the territory of the "Free cities of Mentone & Roccabruna" in 1848

Giuseppe Garibaldi, who promoted the union of the County of Nice to Italy, complained that the plebiscite was not done with "universal vote" and consequently Roccabruna was requested by Italian irredentists.

As a consequence of these irredentism ideals, during World War II all the coastal area between Italy and Monte Carlo was occupied and administered by the Kingdom of Italy until September 1943.

The area became fashionable in the 1920s and 1930s leading to the construction of several notable buildings including Coco Chanel's La Pausa on Cap Martin,[3] and Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici's E-1027.[4]

The Irish poet and Nobel Laureate William Butler Yeats died in the Hôtel Idéal Séjour in the neighboring town of Menton on January 28, 1939. In a letter to his wife, Yeats expressed his wish to be buried in a cemetery in Roquebrune for one year and then to be exhumed and reburied in Drumcliff, County Sligo, Ireland. However, his exhumation was delayed until September 1948 at which point they could no longer locate his remains. The French diplomat sent to oversee the reburial, Bernard Cailloux, said that it was “impossible to return the full and authentic remains of Mr Yeats” and proposed asking Dr Rebouillat, the local sworn pathologist, “to reconstitute a skeleton presenting all the characteristics of the deceased”. The remains of several other individuals, including an Englishman named Alfred Hollis, were assembled in a coffin and sent to Ireland for reburial. The entire affair was handled with secrecy on both the part of the French delegation responsible for the burial, and the poet's family, so as not to elicit outrage from the Irish public. The incident was not publicly disclosed until the private archives of French diplomat Jacques Camílle Paris were turned over to the Irish Embassy in Paris in June 2015.[5]

The literary couple Romain Gary and Lesley Blanch lived in Roquebrune in 1950–57.

Today

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin has several villages and towns: St. Roman, practically a suburb of Monaco (but not part of Monaco proper, as it does not lie within the borders of Monaco), the residential areas of Cabbé, Bon Voyage and Serret, Roquebrune with its perched village and château, the posh Cap Martin peninsula and the modern seaside resort of Carnolès, with its long pebble beach bordering Menton.

The whole area has a major tourism industry, particularly during the high season from April to October.

Population
Historical population
YearPop.±%
1793637—    
1800884+38.8%
1806644−27.1%
1858836+29.8%
1861844+1.0%
1866887+5.1%
1872828−6.7%
1876847+2.3%
18811,068+26.1%
18861,135+6.3%
18912,157+90.0%
18962,588+20.0%
19012,744+6.0%
19063,304+20.4%
19115,337+61.5%
19215,318−0.4%
19266,462+21.5%
19316,888+6.6%
19366,133−11.0%
19464,610−24.8%
19545,279+14.5%
19626,529+23.7%
19688,345+27.8%
197510,996+31.8%
198212,450+13.2%
199012,376−0.6%
199911,692−5.5%
200813,515+15.6%

Culture

The local dialect actually is linguistically part of the mentonasque of the Païs Mentounasc, a cultural area between the Ligurian dialects and the Occitan language.

Since 1861 the use of the French language has increased enormously in the city, and now only a minority of the 11,692 inhabitants still speaks the original dialect of Roccabruna.

Sport

Despite its name, the Monte Carlo Country Club is located in the municipality. It is the venue for the tennis Monte-Carlo Masters.

International relations
See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in France

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin is twinned with:

Honorary citizens

People awarded the honorary citizenship of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin are:

Date Name Notes
3 March 1956Rt. Hon. Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)British prime minister[6] [7]
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See also

References
  1. "Populations légales 2017". INSEE. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  2. See name change history in article on the town in the French-language Wikipedia
  3. Elaine, Sciolino (7 June 2013). "Letter from Paris: The House that Coco Built". The New York Times.
  4. Rawsthorne, Alice (24 February 2013). "Eileen Gray, Freed From Seclusion". The New York Times.
  5. "Yeats: Papers confirm bones sent to Sligo were not poet's". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2Wji0XpN-Q
  7. https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/in-the-media/churchill-in-the-news/emery-and-wendy-reves-qla-pausaq-goes-on-sale/
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