5616 x 3744 px | 47,5 x 31,7 cm | 18,7 x 12,5 inches | 300dpi
Date de la prise de vue:
28 février 2012
Lieu:
Nice Alpes Maritimes France
Informations supplémentaires:
The Hotel Negresco on the Promenade des Anglais on the Baie des Anges in Nice, France was named after Henri Negresco (1868–1920) who had the palatial hotel constructed in 1912. In keeping with the conventions of the times, when the Negresco first opened in 1913 its front opened facing the Mediterranean sea. Henri Negresco, born the son of an innkeeper in Bucharest, Romania, left home at the age of 15 going first to Paris then to the French Riviera where he became very successful. As director of the Municipal Casino in Nice, he had the idea to build a sumptuous hotel of quality that would attract the wealthiest of clients. After arranging the financing, he hired architect Édouard-Jean Niermans to design the hotel with Gustave Eiffel reportedly commissioned to do its now famous pink dome. The spectacular Baccarat 16, 309-crystal chandelier in the Negresco's lobby was commissioned by Czar Nicholas II, who due to the October revolution was unable to take delivery. Bad luck came to Henri Negresco when World War I broke out two years after he opened for business and his hotel was converted to a hospital. By the end of the War, wealthy visitors to the Riviera had dropped off to the point that the hotel was in severe financial difficulty. Seized by creditors, the Negresco was sold to a Belgian company and Henri Negresco died a few years later in Paris at the age of 52. The hotel, in 1957 was sold to the Augier family. Madame Jeanne Augier reinvigorated the hotel with luxurious decorations and furnishings, including an outstanding art collection and rooms with mink bedspreads. Noted for its doormen dressed in the manner of the staff in 18th-century elite bourgeois households, complete with red-plumed postilion hats, the hotel also offers renowned gourmet dining at the Regency-style Le Chantecler under its new chef Bruno Turbot, brought in from Normandy when previous chef Alain Llorca took over the equally fabled Moulin de Mougins. The Negresco has a total of 119 guest rooms.