La Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild
The Cap Ferrat is one of the three major capes of the French Riviera and in my opinion probably the most beautiful. Like a long arm jutting into the Mediterranean, it separates the bay of Villefranche and that of Beaulieu, about half way between Nice and Monaco. It is also one of the most expensive parts of the coastline in terms of real estate, dotted with the exclusive and secluded Belle Epoque style villas of the rich and famous who first discovered the Riviera in the 19th century and found that the climate and scenery were so amazing that they decided to stay.
One of the most prominent of these villas and the only one open to the public is the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, built by Beatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild, a very wealthy French socialite, between 1905 and 1912. She was lucky enough to be able to pick one of the best sites on the Cape, at the top of a narrow isthmus dominating the sea that provides stunning views both east towards Beaulieu and Italy and west towards the deep waters of the Bay of Villefranche and its ancient harbour. Upon her death in 1934, she donated the property to the Institut de France, who have maintained it to this day.
In 22 years living here, I’d never visited the Villa Rothschild apart from a classical music concert once in the grounds during the 2003 summer heat wave: so when some friends called me on a beautiful November’s afternoon, I figured that now would be the perfect opportunity to discover something new… Incidentally, that’s one of the great things about living in such a beautiful area, there is always something new to explore, see and do. So here’s some feedbacl about my visit.
First there is a very well-signposted tour around the 9 beautiful themed gardens that dominate the property: Japanese, Florentine, Provencal, Spanish, exotic (so plenty of cacti like in the Exotic Garden of Monaco), French, a rose garden and a rock garden. Mrs Rothschild commissioned some of the best landscape artists of the time to design the different areas, no mean feat given the steep, rocky terrain and the windswept nature of the location. However the result is a real success, with each garden making the most of the stunning natural environment and having its own specific charm, bringing the visitor into a special sensory world. The highlight is at the end of the walking tour and the downhill approach towards the pink villa through the monumental French gardens, full of classical statues, a great place to take picture postcard photos. Every twenty minutes, the famous “musical fountains” move into action with some Mozart – I’m not a great fan of this kind of thing but I have to admit that the effect was rather nice.
Mrs Rothschild’s favourite colour was obviously pink as the whole villa is flamingo-coloured… The interior is surprisingly tastefully decorated (I was expecting decadent tackiness but was rather pleasantly surprised) and was obviously very luxurious at the time, complete with budgerigars which are all that are left of the menagerie of exotic animals that she had brought along to keep her company. Touring round the various reception and private rooms gives an interesting insight about how the well-off lived during the Belle Epoque. Make sure you go upstairs and enjoy the stunning views from the balcony overlooking the French gardens, with the best viewpoints over the “musical fountains” – there is also a rather interesting film about the history of the villa.
For those who enjoy the doll house atmosphere, her porcelain collections are also exhibited, with some rather questionable colours which presumably were considered trendy at the time.
So all in all, it was a very interesting afternoon out and the Villa Rothschild is definitely worth visiting if you have a bit of time to spare in Cap Ferrat. If you fancy making a day out of it, I would suggest combining with a visit to the Greek Villa Kerylos a short walk down the coast in Beaulieu and a nice walk to enjoy the stunning natural views along the Cape for those with more energy.
HISTORY
1864
The birth of Béatrice de Rothschild
Béatrice was the daughter of the baron, Alphonse de Rothschild, a banker and renowned art collector. At the age of 19, she married Maurice Ephrussi, a Parisian banker of Russian origin, 15 years her senior, and a friend of her parents. The marriage quickly turned sour for Béatrice. She contracted a serious illness from Maurice, which prevented her from having children. Maurice was a gambler and in 1904, his debts totalled over 12 million gold francs, the equivalent of 30 million euros today.
1904
Maurice and Béatrice divorce
Worried about the future, the Rothschild family decided to bring Maurice to court in order to file for a divorce. They won the case and in June 1904, after 21 years of marriage, the divorce of Béatrice de Rothschild and Maurice Ephrussi was officially pronounced. Béatrice then turned her attention to one of her great passions: collecting art. Béatrice had inherited her keen eye and her taste for beautiful objects from her family, renowned for the remarkable collections built up by several of her relatives over the years. Her motto was ‘Ars Patriae Decus’: ‘Art is the honour of the fatherland’. She acquired many items—a Tiepolo ceiling, eighteenth-century furniture, a games table that had once belonged to Marie Antoinette, and a rug commissioned by Louis XIV—to furnish the future villa.
1905
Beatrice discovers Cap Ferrat
Béatrice's father died in 1905 and the Baroness inherited his immense fortune. That same year, she decided to construct her dream home in Cap Ferrat. When she first discovered this plot of land, she was immediately seduced by the beauty of the surroundings. However at the time, the site was rather inaccessible—it was little more than a barren rocky area traversed by a mule track. When she learned of the sale of the terrain and that the Belgian King, Léopold II, was also interested in it, she purchased it without hesitation.
From February 03rd to November 03rd, open every day (10am to 06pm / 07pm on July & August)
1905
Work begins on the gardens
Work on the gardens began immediately and took seven years to complete. The Baroness called upon the talents of several renowned personalities such as Harold Peto and Achille Duchêne—highly prized landscape architects in Europe and the United States at the time. The site chosen for the Villa was not particularly conducive to the creation of a garden. Indeed, creating a park on a rocky promontory covered with trees and exposed to strong winds was quite a tour de force. The Baroness had the ground dynamited and large quantities of earth were brought in to relevel the surface. Hundreds of Italian workers were hired for these large-scale relevelling works.
1907
Work begins on the Villa
Béatrice Ephrussi was especially fastidious when it came to the choice of an architect. She refused projects submitted by a dozen or so leading architects, considering them as ‘idiotic’. The projects proposed by Claude Girault, architect of the Petit Palais and Henri-Paul Nénot, recipient of the Grand Prix de Rome and designer of the new Sorbonne, were also rejected. Architect Jacques-Marcel Auburtin was eventually entrusted with the design of the Villa, having scrupulously met all of Béatrice Ephrussi’s requirements. He was assisted by Aaron Messiah, an architect from Nice who would go on to build several villas for the aristocracy.
1912
Landscaping the gardens
When the Baroness moved into the Villa, four hectares of the gardens were still to be landscaped. The Baroness had given priority to those areas of the grounds visible from the house, i.e. the French formal garden.
She spared no expense or effort when it came to landscaping the grounds of the Villa, and even created a veritable mobile and living decor in her endeavour to design the French formal garden. It was not uncommon to see her employees hidden in pyramids of green cardboard, representing cypress trees, or manoeuvring long strips of silver, grey and green fabric in an attempt to determine the exact location of the ponds, driveways and flower beds…
1912
The Baroness moves into the Villa
Béatrice made the Villa her winter residence and came here regularly for a period of ten or so years, dividing her time between Paris, Monaco and Deauville.
The Baroness Ephrussi de Rothschild made her Villa a true haven for art collectors with porcelain, furniture and paintings by the Great Masters. The Villa was decorated in the Rothschild style, i.e., with the best from each era, resulting in a somewhat eclectic mix!
The Baroness furnished her Villa directly at the Gare de Beaulieu. A train arrive from Paris loaded with furniture and works of art. The Baroness would select the artworks for her Villa on the platform of the train station! Those works not selected for the Villa Ephrussi would furnish her villa in Monaco.
1933
Béatrice bequeaths her collection to the Académie des Beaux-Arts
A year before her death, Beatrice bequeathed her Villa and the entirety of its collections to the Académie des Beaux-Arts. The Académie also received the 7 hectares of land and some 5,000 works of art.
1934
The death of Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild
Suffering from tuberculosis, Béatrice retired to Davos in Switzerland where she passed away. One of her relatives would describe Béatrice on her deathbed in the following words: ‘she was still beautiful, with the snowy halo of her hair surrounding the deathly pallor of her face’.
That same year, the landscape architect Louis Marchand was entrusted with designing the themed gardens of the estate: a Spanish, Florentine, Japanese, and Mexican garden. Such variety would surely have pleased the first occupant of the premises. He also had water put in the fountains and renovated the French formal gardens.
1945
Following the Second World War
During the war, Cap Ferrat was deserted by its inhabitants and the area was mined. The Villa remained unattended and the gardens abandoned for two years. When Louis Marchand returned to the Villa after the war, he quickly began work on the badly neglected gardens, soon restoring them to their pre-war splendour. The building was also renovated, and a new colour scheme chosen for the facades: once ochre yellow, the Villa was painted in reddish-pink hues, providing it with a Venetian air.
1985
A harsh winter
This year was marked by a particularly harsh winter. As the Villa’s lavish gardens are more exposed to the cold wind than other gardens on the cape, the estate lost many of its tall, beautiful trees and almost all of the Mexican garden.
The Marnier Lapostolle family, who lived in the neighbouring villa and were friends of the former head gardener and the owners of a remarkable collection of cacti and rare plants, offered many of the plants from their own collection to the Villa Ephrussi in an effort to restore the devastated Mexican garden, today referred to as the ‘exotic garden’.
1991
Culturespaces devient délégataire
The Académie des Beaux-Arts entrusted the management of the site to Culturespaces. The latter has overseen the renovation of the Villa’s interior, and the restoration of the gardens, respecting the original plan designed by Louis Marchand. Culturespaces is responsible for organizing several events at the site, including the Fête des Roses et des Plantes (Rose and Plant Festival) showcasing the Villa’s splendid gardens.
OPENING TIMES
The Villa is open 365 day a year from 10 a.m to 6 p.m, except:
July and August: from 10 a.m to 7 p.m
From November to January: from Monday to Friday from 2 p.m to 6 p.m. / weekends and holidays from 10 a.m to 6 p.m.
Last admission 30 minutes before closing.
The cultural gift shop is open during the Villa’s opening times.
The tea room is open during the Villa’s opening times.
From March to Septembre: Villa opening times.
From November to February: only weekends, holidays and bank holidays.
06230 Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
Tél : 04 93 01 33 09
Fax : 04 93 01 31 10
Email : message@villa-ephrussi.com
Return
One of the most prominent of these villas and the only one open to the public is the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, built by Beatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild, a very wealthy French socialite, between 1905 and 1912. She was lucky enough to be able to pick one of the best sites on the Cape, at the top of a narrow isthmus dominating the sea that provides stunning views both east towards Beaulieu and Italy and west towards the deep waters of the Bay of Villefranche and its ancient harbour. Upon her death in 1934, she donated the property to the Institut de France, who have maintained it to this day.
In 22 years living here, I’d never visited the Villa Rothschild apart from a classical music concert once in the grounds during the 2003 summer heat wave: so when some friends called me on a beautiful November’s afternoon, I figured that now would be the perfect opportunity to discover something new… Incidentally, that’s one of the great things about living in such a beautiful area, there is always something new to explore, see and do. So here’s some feedbacl about my visit.
First there is a very well-signposted tour around the 9 beautiful themed gardens that dominate the property: Japanese, Florentine, Provencal, Spanish, exotic (so plenty of cacti like in the Exotic Garden of Monaco), French, a rose garden and a rock garden. Mrs Rothschild commissioned some of the best landscape artists of the time to design the different areas, no mean feat given the steep, rocky terrain and the windswept nature of the location. However the result is a real success, with each garden making the most of the stunning natural environment and having its own specific charm, bringing the visitor into a special sensory world. The highlight is at the end of the walking tour and the downhill approach towards the pink villa through the monumental French gardens, full of classical statues, a great place to take picture postcard photos. Every twenty minutes, the famous “musical fountains” move into action with some Mozart – I’m not a great fan of this kind of thing but I have to admit that the effect was rather nice.
Mrs Rothschild’s favourite colour was obviously pink as the whole villa is flamingo-coloured… The interior is surprisingly tastefully decorated (I was expecting decadent tackiness but was rather pleasantly surprised) and was obviously very luxurious at the time, complete with budgerigars which are all that are left of the menagerie of exotic animals that she had brought along to keep her company. Touring round the various reception and private rooms gives an interesting insight about how the well-off lived during the Belle Epoque. Make sure you go upstairs and enjoy the stunning views from the balcony overlooking the French gardens, with the best viewpoints over the “musical fountains” – there is also a rather interesting film about the history of the villa.
For those who enjoy the doll house atmosphere, her porcelain collections are also exhibited, with some rather questionable colours which presumably were considered trendy at the time.
So all in all, it was a very interesting afternoon out and the Villa Rothschild is definitely worth visiting if you have a bit of time to spare in Cap Ferrat. If you fancy making a day out of it, I would suggest combining with a visit to the Greek Villa Kerylos a short walk down the coast in Beaulieu and a nice walk to enjoy the stunning natural views along the Cape for those with more energy.
HISTORY
1864
The birth of Béatrice de Rothschild
Béatrice was the daughter of the baron, Alphonse de Rothschild, a banker and renowned art collector. At the age of 19, she married Maurice Ephrussi, a Parisian banker of Russian origin, 15 years her senior, and a friend of her parents. The marriage quickly turned sour for Béatrice. She contracted a serious illness from Maurice, which prevented her from having children. Maurice was a gambler and in 1904, his debts totalled over 12 million gold francs, the equivalent of 30 million euros today.
1904
Maurice and Béatrice divorce
Worried about the future, the Rothschild family decided to bring Maurice to court in order to file for a divorce. They won the case and in June 1904, after 21 years of marriage, the divorce of Béatrice de Rothschild and Maurice Ephrussi was officially pronounced. Béatrice then turned her attention to one of her great passions: collecting art. Béatrice had inherited her keen eye and her taste for beautiful objects from her family, renowned for the remarkable collections built up by several of her relatives over the years. Her motto was ‘Ars Patriae Decus’: ‘Art is the honour of the fatherland’. She acquired many items—a Tiepolo ceiling, eighteenth-century furniture, a games table that had once belonged to Marie Antoinette, and a rug commissioned by Louis XIV—to furnish the future villa.
1905
Beatrice discovers Cap Ferrat
Béatrice's father died in 1905 and the Baroness inherited his immense fortune. That same year, she decided to construct her dream home in Cap Ferrat. When she first discovered this plot of land, she was immediately seduced by the beauty of the surroundings. However at the time, the site was rather inaccessible—it was little more than a barren rocky area traversed by a mule track. When she learned of the sale of the terrain and that the Belgian King, Léopold II, was also interested in it, she purchased it without hesitation.
From February 03rd to November 03rd, open every day (10am to 06pm / 07pm on July & August)
1905
Work begins on the gardens
Work on the gardens began immediately and took seven years to complete. The Baroness called upon the talents of several renowned personalities such as Harold Peto and Achille Duchêne—highly prized landscape architects in Europe and the United States at the time. The site chosen for the Villa was not particularly conducive to the creation of a garden. Indeed, creating a park on a rocky promontory covered with trees and exposed to strong winds was quite a tour de force. The Baroness had the ground dynamited and large quantities of earth were brought in to relevel the surface. Hundreds of Italian workers were hired for these large-scale relevelling works.
1907
Work begins on the Villa
Béatrice Ephrussi was especially fastidious when it came to the choice of an architect. She refused projects submitted by a dozen or so leading architects, considering them as ‘idiotic’. The projects proposed by Claude Girault, architect of the Petit Palais and Henri-Paul Nénot, recipient of the Grand Prix de Rome and designer of the new Sorbonne, were also rejected. Architect Jacques-Marcel Auburtin was eventually entrusted with the design of the Villa, having scrupulously met all of Béatrice Ephrussi’s requirements. He was assisted by Aaron Messiah, an architect from Nice who would go on to build several villas for the aristocracy.
1912
Landscaping the gardens
When the Baroness moved into the Villa, four hectares of the gardens were still to be landscaped. The Baroness had given priority to those areas of the grounds visible from the house, i.e. the French formal garden.
She spared no expense or effort when it came to landscaping the grounds of the Villa, and even created a veritable mobile and living decor in her endeavour to design the French formal garden. It was not uncommon to see her employees hidden in pyramids of green cardboard, representing cypress trees, or manoeuvring long strips of silver, grey and green fabric in an attempt to determine the exact location of the ponds, driveways and flower beds…
1912
The Baroness moves into the Villa
Béatrice made the Villa her winter residence and came here regularly for a period of ten or so years, dividing her time between Paris, Monaco and Deauville.
The Baroness Ephrussi de Rothschild made her Villa a true haven for art collectors with porcelain, furniture and paintings by the Great Masters. The Villa was decorated in the Rothschild style, i.e., with the best from each era, resulting in a somewhat eclectic mix!
The Baroness furnished her Villa directly at the Gare de Beaulieu. A train arrive from Paris loaded with furniture and works of art. The Baroness would select the artworks for her Villa on the platform of the train station! Those works not selected for the Villa Ephrussi would furnish her villa in Monaco.
1933
Béatrice bequeaths her collection to the Académie des Beaux-Arts
A year before her death, Beatrice bequeathed her Villa and the entirety of its collections to the Académie des Beaux-Arts. The Académie also received the 7 hectares of land and some 5,000 works of art.
1934
The death of Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild
Suffering from tuberculosis, Béatrice retired to Davos in Switzerland where she passed away. One of her relatives would describe Béatrice on her deathbed in the following words: ‘she was still beautiful, with the snowy halo of her hair surrounding the deathly pallor of her face’.
That same year, the landscape architect Louis Marchand was entrusted with designing the themed gardens of the estate: a Spanish, Florentine, Japanese, and Mexican garden. Such variety would surely have pleased the first occupant of the premises. He also had water put in the fountains and renovated the French formal gardens.
1945
Following the Second World War
During the war, Cap Ferrat was deserted by its inhabitants and the area was mined. The Villa remained unattended and the gardens abandoned for two years. When Louis Marchand returned to the Villa after the war, he quickly began work on the badly neglected gardens, soon restoring them to their pre-war splendour. The building was also renovated, and a new colour scheme chosen for the facades: once ochre yellow, the Villa was painted in reddish-pink hues, providing it with a Venetian air.
1985
A harsh winter
This year was marked by a particularly harsh winter. As the Villa’s lavish gardens are more exposed to the cold wind than other gardens on the cape, the estate lost many of its tall, beautiful trees and almost all of the Mexican garden.
The Marnier Lapostolle family, who lived in the neighbouring villa and were friends of the former head gardener and the owners of a remarkable collection of cacti and rare plants, offered many of the plants from their own collection to the Villa Ephrussi in an effort to restore the devastated Mexican garden, today referred to as the ‘exotic garden’.
1991
Culturespaces devient délégataire
The Académie des Beaux-Arts entrusted the management of the site to Culturespaces. The latter has overseen the renovation of the Villa’s interior, and the restoration of the gardens, respecting the original plan designed by Louis Marchand. Culturespaces is responsible for organizing several events at the site, including the Fête des Roses et des Plantes (Rose and Plant Festival) showcasing the Villa’s splendid gardens.
OPENING TIMES
The Villa is open 365 day a year from 10 a.m to 6 p.m, except:
July and August: from 10 a.m to 7 p.m
From November to January: from Monday to Friday from 2 p.m to 6 p.m. / weekends and holidays from 10 a.m to 6 p.m.
Last admission 30 minutes before closing.
The cultural gift shop is open during the Villa’s opening times.
The tea room is open during the Villa’s opening times.
From March to Septembre: Villa opening times.
From November to February: only weekends, holidays and bank holidays.
06230 Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
Tél : 04 93 01 33 09
Fax : 04 93 01 31 10
Email : message@villa-ephrussi.com
