Catherine Ségurane

Catherine Ségurane (Catarina Ségurana in the Niçard dialect of Provençal) is a folk heroine of the city of Nice, France who is said to have played a decisive role in repelling the city's siege by Turkish invaders allied with Francis I, during the Franco-Ottoman siege of Nice, in the summer of 1543.

[1] At the time, Nice was part of Savoy, independent from France, and had no standing military to defend it.

Catherine's existence has never been definitively proven, and her heroic act is likely pure fiction or highly exaggerated; Jean Badat, a historian who stood witness to the siege, made no mention of her involvement in the defense.

Historically attested defense of Nice include the townspeople's destruction of a key bridge and the arrival of an army mustered by a Charles III of Savoy.

Louis Andrioli wrote an epic poem about her in 1808, and a play dedicated to her story was written by Jean-Baptiste Toselli in 1878.