Paintings, costumes, tools, letters, photographs, objects and documents on display in the museum bring the history of Antibes to life, show important moments in the history of the town and the daily life of people here at the beginning of the 20th century.
[...] The town of Antibes has a long history: shards discovered in alluvial rock deposits show that the site was occupied over 3,000 years ago: Deciates and Oxybiens (Celtic-Ligurians) were visited by sailing ships from Ionia, Phoenicea and Crete who traded here as they passed. Finally, the Greeks came from Massilia (Marseilles) and settled here, working well with the local people. The town then took the name of Antipolis and grew in prosperity, with the port becoming an important trading point. In the first century B.C. there was a Ligurian invasion, which threatened the stability of the town, the residents called on the Romans for help, who responded to the call and in their turn settled here and made Antipolis a Roman municipal town.
Trade flourished once more, and the fruit conservation industry flourished. However, invasions, epidemics and natural disasters took their toll. The population of the town diminished and those remaining on the rock were constantly threatened by outsiders. A coalition of Provençal lords drove out the Saracens, and one of them by the name of Rodoard became Lord of Antibes and built a chateau on the ruins of the castrum. In 1386, when Nice was once more attached to Savoy, Antibes became a border town. In 1481, Louis 11th annexed Provence to the royal domain, and Antibes was fortified by successive kings of France. The Saint Laurent tower was built, and just under 100 years later the four bastions of Fort Carré were added. Finally, one century later, Louis 14th transformed Antibes into a fortified town. The Revolution then took place. When Nice was once more returned in 1860, Antibes lost its status as border town, and the residents requested that the fortress walls be demolished. It was 35 years before the minister accepted their request, and the demolition took ten years, from 1895 to 1905. There are old photographs in the museum of this important turning point in the history of Antibes. The Empire saw the passage of Bonaparte, general-in-command of the Italian army, who installed his mother and sisters in the Chateau Salé, but on his return from the Isle of Elba the governor refused to open the gates to him, and he was forced to land in Golfe Juan. [...]
Fishing in Antibes
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Most of the objects in the “fishing” collection at the museum belong to the Gilli family, owners of the tower until its purchase by the council to make it into a museum.
Each object conjures up how fishing was done, what life was like back then.
An interesting fact is that each owner-fisherman had his own colour and insignia. The Gilli family, for example, had the colour green, and the insignia MG was fixed to the port light on all the vessels in the flotilla. The hoop nets, girelles, pots and bales also identified the owner, ensuring there was never any dispute as to ownership. [...]
For centuries, up to the invention of nylon, fishing tackle remained unchanged, and both ancient and more recent equipment is on display.
[...] As well as possessing much cultivated land, Antibes has always been an important shipping town, and much of its existence has been linked to its port. Although a trading port since its beginnings, the town only started to become truly prosperous with the arrival of the Phocaeans, Greeks who came from Marseilles and settled here. It was at this time that the town started to develop, with a great deal of fishing trade and an extension of the conservation industry. The Romans then arrived, and Antipolis, “civita romana”, continued to develop and the fishing and conservation industry to expand. [...]
Antipolis, Antiboul and now Antibes, has known much commercial development in all the different phases it has experienced and the port has had many splendid ships sailing into it loaded with merchandise. (...) In the 13th century, magnificent vessels left from here to go to the Holy Land ...
Provençal costumes
They vary according to the area, the temperature and the social group. There are “grandes dames” costumes on display in the museum showing the Parisian fashions worn by bourgeois women, whose dressmakers copied the Paris fashions from the gazettes of the day. Landowners with vast properties favoured leather breeches and embroidered waistcoats, while the women wore flowered or striped blouses and padded skirts. Generally, the higher the social class, the finer and more ornate the costumes.
The nobility and landowners and their wives wore silk and velvet, the peasants dressed in striped skirts, woven in red and white, blue and white or red and blue, with voluminous petticoats. Their lingerie was white, embroidered or decorated with lace. Hairstyles were sometimes simple, sometimes ornate, and bonnets were worn to work in the fields, with all sorts of embroidery and adornments for fashion-conscious workers or rich country people. Each one was specially adapted for the class and the face, with the hair tied back underneath.
Antibes and the hydroplanes
The maritime role of Antibes, which has existed since Antiquity, and through the Crusades to today, was enlarged in the 1920's and 30's with the building of an aeronautical base in the town.
First arriving in France in 1910, hydroaviation rapidly expanded during the Great War where it rendered a great service to the fighting. Abandoned by the airforce at the end of hostilities, it was taken up by civil aviation and was extraordinarily popular. In Antibes, pioneers such as Bague, the Count of Robillard-Cognac and the Garbero brothers constructed the first hydroplane with floats, which took off from Saint Roch cove and became a part of the history of aviation in this heroic era, with the champions of the day flying planes or hydroplanes equally happily, as landing on the sea or on land no longer held any secrets. [...]
Saint Roch cove - now Port Vauban - was constantly busy at this time with airliners coming and going, test flights of the aircraft that had been constructed in the hangars, and visiting aircraft. Celebrated aviators came to Antibes: Maryse Bastie, Mermoz, Troyat, Reginensi ...
It was in 1999 that the navy, deciding to build a aeronautical base, called in the specialists, having done test flights on missions that often proved difficult. It was in this way that an admirable team were in charge of the base which prospered until the war in 1939. The Italian, then German occupation halted operations at the base, and at the end of the war, hydroaviation ceased for airlines and mail planes: little by little the bases were decommissioned, and hangars were emptied of the flying machines.
Provençal furniture
It is particular to this area and very unusual. The furniture that comes from the country is purely functional with simple shapes and no ornament.
It was in the 18th century that the gouge was first used, giving furniture in Lower Provence the charm that we recognise now. The cabinet makers went from a rustic style to more elaborate craftsmanship, decorating with marguerites, tureens and olive branches.
In Marseilles, exotic woods were often used that arrived by ship in the port, but walnut was the most popular, and with fruit tree wood rapidly overtook in popularity other wood that had long been used such as cypress. [...]
The text is from a work by Fernande Basset-Terrusse La Tour Museum. History and local traditions catalogue, Fantino Printers.
