France - Alpes Maritimes

Alpes-Maritimes (Occitan: Aups Maritims) is a department in the extreme southeast corner of France.

History

The Romans had a province called Alpes Maritimae as early as 7 BC. Its capital was Cemenelum, today Cimiez, a neighborhood in the north of Nice. At its largest in 297, this province extended to Digne and Briançon, and its capital was Embrun.

A department of this name existed in France from 1793 to 1815, but it had different boundaries and included Monaco and San Remo.

The present department was created in 1860 when the county of Nice was annexed. It was constituted out of the county of Nice and the arrondissement of Grasse in the department of Var.

In 1947, the department was enlarged by the addition of the communes of Tende and La Brigue, which had remained Italian after the 1860 annexation.