Just after the French-Prussian war of 1870, only three observatories were  officially working in France: those in Paris,  Marseilles and Toulouse. They had few facilities and ran in poor conditions.  Observational astronomy  was quite backward in France, mainly for lack of modern instruments and equipments.

       Raphaël Bischoffsheim belonged to one of the most powerful families of Parisian bankers known for  philanthropic actions. In 1873,  he came into his father's  fortune, and decided to carry on  the tradition of the family.  A friend  of him, Maurice Loewy, who was an astronomer at the Paris Observatory  convinced him that he could  greatly help  astronomy.

 
        Bischoffsheim funded  the construction of two instruments for the Paris Observatory a meridian circle and an equatorial coudé, then  he proposed to provide France " with a large modern observatory, equipped with the most powerful telescopes in  the world and set up under the most beautiful sky".

      It was indeed a new initiative; the private foundations were frequent in the United States and in England, but extremely rare or even non-existent in France.


      Bischoffsheim undertook to finance everything, from the purchase of land to the salary of the staffs, including the constructions of the buildings and of the instruments. The Bureau des Longitudes (Board of Longitudes), which had been entrusted  since its foundation in 1795, with the supervising  French observatories,   acted as a scientific advisor.

      The star and nebula studies were particularly improving  in Germany and in the USA.  Bischoffsheim offered an opportunity  to create an observatory able to challenge the best.

     The Bureau appointed two commissions:  one aimed to choose the instruments to be built,  and the other to select the site. As soon as 1879, the former ordered to the best French manufacturers of the  time, Brunner, Gautier and Eichens, a large  meridian circle, a mobile meridian circle, a 38cm-refractor   and the huge 76cm-refractor. The Henry brothers, who gained a world reputation afterwards, were entrusted to undertake the optical parts.

      After prospecting along the Mediterranean coast from Italy to Spain, the other comittee chose the summit of the Mont Gros, 374 meters  above the city of Nice. It  overhangs the sea and all the surroundings, it is  far enough  from the strong winds of the  Rhone valley and of the Pyrenees mountains, the sky is often clear, and the atmosphere quiet enough to provide  the stability necessary to the observations.

     Finally, it was sufficiently far from the city to avoid the effects of its lights, albeit  not too much distant and relatively easy to reach, thanks to a great road, the "Grande Corniche" which served it.

    In fact, it was Colonel Wagner, Head of the Engineers Corporation,  in Nice, who insisted for this choice that also offered  to the army a strategic site, not very far from  the French-Italian frontier, at little cost!

      Bischoffsheim bought all the summit of the Mont Gros, encompassing an area of  35 hectares. He entrusted the design of the plans to his friend Charles Garnier, famous for his realization of the  Paris Opera, and then hailed as  the "greatest architect of Europe"!

  Garnier  wrote: " He came smiling, with his small witty eyes and his soft voice to ask me to describe the construction of his observatory. It was intended to be an important and huge work, which would certainly be recognised one day as one of the best steps in astronomical history. I could not refuse;  it was asked so friendly ".




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