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	The Postern
		Eze, The old Village

The Coat of arms

On the Centenary square, just before the Postern, has appeared for a few years a plate enamelled lava representing the Eze weapons : a phoenix perched on a bone with the legend :"Moriendo, renascor", "In death, I am reborn".

This arms moved during centuries. It is not rare to see them with a blue colour background. Initially, the Eze arms belonged to the notary Joseph Fighiera (fig in nissart) of Eze during the XVII e century. And when they had to choose the weapons for the city, Charles Alexander Fighiera, then curator of the Masséna museum in Nice, proposed to take those of his ancestors who appeared during many years on legal documents.

Centenary Square

In 1960, the city of Eze commemorated the centenary anniversary of the re-attachment of the county of Nice to France. The vote of the annexation of the county of Nice took place the 15th and 16th April 1860 in the chapel of the white penitents. On 171 registered voters, there were 133 voters and 133 ballot paper marked "yes". In the county of Nice the number of registered voters were 30 706, the numbers of voters 25 933 and the numbers of ballot paper "yes" 25 743 for 160 "no" and 30 spoilt paper. On the 29th of April, the proclamation of the results was received with the cries "Vive la France" "Vive l'Empereur" !

The Postern

This strengthened door, called "the Postern" by the inhabitants, wears bad his name because according to the definition, a "postern" is agive door way in a fortification and here, we speak about a principal access. The postern was started from the XIVe century, undoubtedly from a pre-existing frame, when the village passed to the house of Savoy and was rework on several occasions during centuries. It is composed of several elements intended to prohibit the access of Eze from possible invaders. The formed whole of a succession of doors and a draw-bridge, constituted one of the components of a defensive system including the walls surrounding the village and the castle located at the top of the village.

The attacker, Turk or French, were first of all confronted with a drawbridge, whose posts are still visible, spanning a ditch, today filled. He was to cross a door arched in semicircular arch surmounted by a work in overhang, which one still sees the stones of support. This first door is pressed on an imposing tower and there will be a gunboat in XVI e century. We can still observe the upside down hinge of the front door built to prevent to lift it.

After the first door, remained to pass a last door in gothic arch also surmounted by a tower. At this place, the attacker was suffer fires from Ezasques on several places : from the first tower, second tower and covered way finally. During the war of succession of Spain, Louis the XIV in 1706, ordered the destruction of the fortifications and castle of Eze as well as the castle of Nice. Today, the postern with the guardroom changed into shops, remains one of the most remarkable relics and has been preserved for centuries.

The entrance, the postern opens on a small square, there begins the "rue du Brec" leading to the church and the "rue principale", the main street. The narrowness of the streets allowed to save space, to protect from the sun during the summer and to slow down the advance of the invaders towards the castle. The first house at the sign "A votre Eze chez Justin" still has some traces of a old coffee-grocery and in particularly two windows in "trompe l'œil" which rebalance the symmetry of the facade and shows the italian influence.

Bibliography :
Fighiera (Charles-Alexandre), Eze, Nice, éditions Serre, 2000, 448 p.