The 32-metre stone eagle: a remembrance to fallen Niçois heroes

The Monument to the Dead of Rauba-Capeu, located on Nice's tourist Seaside Road (Route du bord de mer), stands tall at 32 meters. Built between 1923 and 1928 by Nice-born architect Roger Séassal, the monument symbolizes a tribute to those Niçois lost in the First World War. At its apex, a stone eagle sculpture watches over the city. Beneath the eagle, urns engraved with 3,665 names, representing the fallen Niçois, are set in an arched niche. A sundial, measuring two meters in diameter, is inscribed in the monument’s base.

In 2018, a twenty-meter-high reliquary sculpture was discovered hidden within the monument, containing plaques of 2,000 soldiers who lost their lives during the First World War; no records make note of it.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons