Due to its centuries-old membership of the Duchy of Savoy, a state that is largely open to the Italian peninsula, Nice is one of the few cities in France to possess a homogeneous and substantial Baroque heritage.
This religious and civil heritage is mainly concentrated in Old Nice. Its constitution, a real stylistic revolution, which lasted for more than a century and a half (1642 - 1790), was so radical that it made all previous architectural evidence disappear.