The land was originally bought by Comte Caïs de Pierlas en 1837 and he had a botanic garden planted on the site. There are still some of the original olive trees on the site from before the botanic gardens.
Count Joseph de Chambrun then bought the land in 1876 and brought in the famous Swiss brothers, Denis et Eugène Bühler, to do further landscaping.
At one point there was an artificial waterfall - probably similar to the one on the top of Colline de Chateau in Nice centre.
The neo-classical temple was designed by the architect Philippe Randon and dedicated to Countess of Chambrun , who wanted a sort of bandstand for classical music recitals.Winter concerts were given here in winter from 1885 - Nice was originally a winter desination rather than a summer one, due to the very mild climate.
These are the steps that lead up to the temple. Kids [and some adults slide down the sloping edges] and the marble is now polished from thousands of bottoms sliding down.
The interior ceiling is beautifully decorated with gilded rosettes. Its still in very good repair considering its age.
The tops of the columns are highly decorated with bull heads and foliate decorations. The pigeons like to use them as perches -this one started to fly away at the moment i took the photo.
The 12 columns are beautiful white fluted marble. The top of the roof is 19 metres from the ground 
The city of Nice bought the 'temple' and a small amount of surrounding land in 1920.Since then , the Temple of Love has become a popular and very romantic place for local people have their wedding photos taken.
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3 comments:
Lovely pics. I was in Provence a couple of months ago and found the Roman "ruins" (remarkably intact in reality) amazing.
Love the photos and fact combo. Very interesting as usual. :-)
The photo of the ceiling almost makes you dizzy if you look at it too long!
I like the shot up the columns, the angle makes them even more imposing.
Thanks for the crocodile information at Parc Phoenix. I've been several times recently but must always have missed them.
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