Antibes occupies a naturally sheltered position on the Mediterranean between present-day Nice and Cannes. Greek settlers associated with Massalia established Antipolis there, probably in the later first millennium BCE, within a coastal world already inhabited and traded through by Ligurian communities. Under Rome, the settlement became an urban center with roads, harbor activity, houses, baths, workshops, and agricultural estates. Archaeological finds preserve this ancient history beneath and around the later old town rather than in one complete visible monument.

After the western Roman Empire fragmented, Antibes passed through periods of insecurity, ecclesiastical rule, and competition among regional lords. A medieval town grew behind walls around the cathedral and castle. The Grimaldi family controlled the lordship for part of the later Middle Ages, and the building now housing the Picasso Museum retains their name. Fishing, coastal trade, farming, worship, and defense organized daily life, while raids and political rivalry repeatedly encouraged residents to repair the enclosure.

Antibes became part of the French royal domain in the late fifteenth century and developed as a frontier fortress facing territories linked to Savoy. Early modern engineers strengthened walls and bastions for gunpowder warfare. Fort Carré guarded the harbor approaches, while work associated with Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban improved the broader defensive system under Louis XIV. Soldiers and military construction shaped the local economy, but merchants, sailors, artisans, farmers, and religious communities kept Antibes functioning as a town rather than merely a garrison.

France's eastern frontier shifted in the nineteenth century, reducing the strategic need for the old defenses. Sections of wall were demolished as Antibes expanded beyond the cramped center, and new transport links encouraged tourism along the Riviera. The harbor accommodated pleasure craft as well as fishing and commerce. Artists and writers were drawn to the coast; Pablo Picasso worked in the former Grimaldi castle in 1946, and the museum established there added a modern artistic identity to a building rooted in medieval lordship.

Antibes Old Town now combines inhabited lanes, markets, churches, museums, ramparts, harbor facilities, and intense seasonal tourism. Surviving walls frame an urban fabric altered continuously since antiquity, so preservation depends on archaeology and careful adaptation rather than an attempt to restore one ideal date. The district is significant for the persistence of its maritime position. Greek colony, Roman town, medieval bishopric, French fortress, fishing port, artistic center, and resort followed one another because the same protected harbor connected the settlement to Mediterranean movement and exchange.