Nizza, Mediterranean garden on Main river bank, Frankfurt, Germany

Nizza is a Mediterranean garden stretching over 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) along the northern Main riverbank between Untermainbrücke and Friedensbrücke bridges, spanning about 4 hectares. It grows olive trees, figs, bananas, cork trees, citrus fruits, cypress trees, and stone pines adapted to the warm local conditions.

Until 1858 the small island Mainlust lay in the Kleiner Main, a side arm used as a winter harbour; the arm was filled in for the Städtische Verbindungsbahn and the island joined to the bank. City gardener Sebastian Rinz laid it out as a park in 1860, and his grandson Andreas Weber redesigned it in 1875, planting Mediterranean flora and giving the site the name Nizza.

The name Nizza comes from the mild microclimate of this south-facing, wind-protected riverbank, which recalled the gardens of the French Riviera. The first Mediterranean planting was carried out in 1875 by city gardener Andreas Weber, who continued an idea of garden designer Heinrich Siesmayer; some plants then still overwintered in a glasshouse. Since 2000 the park has held frost-hardy Mediterranean species that need no greenhouse.

The park runs about one kilometre along the Untermainkai between the Untermainbrücke and Friedensbrücke bridges, continuing the western Wallanlagen green belt. A plane-tree avenue crosses it, and the former Grindbrunnen pavilion site is now occupied by a cubic glass building housing a restaurant-café, open since 26 August 2004. The copper equatorial sundial, over 3.5 metres across, stands restored after its 2004 relocation.

The copper equatorial sundial in front of the glass pavilion, set up in 1951, measures over three and a half metres across and weighs about a tonne; it was long regarded as the largest of its kind in the world. It was restored in 2004, but its location was shifted by 1.4 km.