Property in Biot: Prices, sectors and daily life

Biot’s story begins with the Knights Templar, who fortified this hilltop in the 13th century. Plague emptied the village in the 14th century, and in 1470 about fifty families from the Oneglia area of Liguria were invited to repopulate it. They brought the ceramic and pottery skills that shaped Biot’s artisan identity for centuries. The ramparts, gates and arcaded streets they built still form the village core.

Glass arrived in 1956, when ceramicist Éloi Monod set up the Verrerie de Biot and, by accident, created the "bubble glass" (verre bullé) the village is now known for: mouth-blown glass with trapped air bubbles that catch the Mediterranean light. The technique made Biot’s name abroad, and the village is now home to dozens of glass artists, potters and sculptors whose studios are open to visitors.

Meanwhile, on the plateau below, Sophia Antipolis, Europe’s first technology park, grew from 1969. That left Biot in an unusual position: an intact medieval village with working artisan traditions, five minutes from a major tech hub and eight minutes from the beaches of Antibes. Heritage on the hill, technology on the plateau: that is what buyers come to Biot for.