Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild

A pink villa

A Rothschild baroness built a rose-tinted villa on the cape

The villa was built between 1907 and 1912 by Baroness Béatrice de Rothschild, to a design by the architect Aaron Messiah. She built her rose-tinted villa on a promontory overlooking the Mediterranean and filled it with antique furniture, Old Master paintings and rare porcelain.

A ship

The garden was planned as a ship, with gardeners in sailor outfits

The garden was conceived in the form of a ship, to be viewed from the loggia of the house, which was like the bridge of a vessel. It was inspired by a voyage on the liner Île de France. The thirty gardeners were dressed as sailors, with berets with red pom-poms.

Nine gardens

Nine gardens each have their own theme

The villa is surrounded by nine gardens: French, Spanish, Japanese, Florentine, Provençal, exotic, a stone garden, a rose garden and a garden of Sèvres. They were created between 1905 and 1912 under the landscape architect Achille Duchêne.

9gardens around the villa, each on a different theme

Left to art

The baroness left the villa to the Académie des Beaux-Arts

In 1934 the Baroness left the property and its collections to the Académie des Beaux-Arts division of the Institut de France. The villa has been classified as a monument historique since 1996, and its gardens are classified as one of the Remarkable Gardens of France.

Events

A Painters' Day and an opera festival are held here every year

Every June the villa puts on The Painters' Day, opening its doors to artists who want to find inspiration and practise their art in one of the nine gardens. It is also the location of the annual summer opera festival Les Opera Azuriales.