Local tradition maintains that a pagan temple dedicated to the Roman goddesses Diana and Minerva once stood on the site, and that St Paul stopped here to preach in AD 63, during a journey to Spain.

Louis XV of France personally issued an edict for the cathedral's reconstruction in June 1747, and the external form of the building dates largely to this phase of its history.

The Bishopric of Grasse was suppressed during the French Revolution and was not restored by the Concordat of 1801; instead its territory, including Antibes, was assigned to the Diocese of Nice.

The Cathedral, along with the adjoining Chapel of the Holy Spirit and the nearby Tour Grimaldi, was added to the French Ministry of Culture’s List of Historic Monuments in 1945.

In the interior are a number of splendid works of art, the most renowned of which is the altarpiece of Our Lady of the Rosary in the transept chapel, which was produced in 1515 by the Niçois painter Louis Brea.