Villa Ephrussi De Rothschild

With its nine theme gardens spread out over seven hectares of land, in one of the most exclusive areas of Côte d’Azur, the park of Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild is one of the most remarkable in France.

The romantic villa, in the centre of the imposing park, was constructed between 1907 and 1912 by baroness Béatrice Ephrussi, née Rothschild. 

Belonging to one of the world’s wealthiest family, Béatrice Rothschild grew up in a world of privilege, spending her childhood in-between the family’s 18th century palace on the northeast corner of Place de la Concorde in Paris and the château her grandfather, James Rothschild, had built in Ferrières.

Her father, baron Alphonse de Rothschild, had been an avid art collector, and after her divorce from Maurice Ephrussi in 1904, Beatrice Rothschild continued the family legacy – the Rothschild motto was Ars Patriae Decus (In English: Art in honour of the fatherland) – by collecting art and antiques, over the years creating an impressive private collection

A year after the divorce, her father died, leaving her with a large fortune.

Keen on starting a new life project, she bought a plot of land on Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (snatching it up before Belgian King Leopold II had a chance to make an offer).

The reason she decided on this part of France was that she in recent years had visited nearby Villa Kerylos, commissioned by her ex-husband’s cousin Fanny Reinbach (and her husband Théodore), and then fallen in love with the region.

The villa, designed in a Italian renaissance-style, was planned by architect Jacques-Marcel Auburtin, while Harold Peto and Achille Duchêne – and later Louis Marchand – were in charge of developing the gardens.

The villa perfectly represents the taste of Béatrice Rothschild and the era that she lived in.

Overlooking the Bay Fourmis de Beaulieu-sur-Mer, the villa’s spacious rooms were decorated with an eclectic mix of the many items that she had collected over the years.

At the time of her death, the collection contained more than 5,000 artworks.

The largest garden in the park is the formal French garden (in French, Le jardin à la française).

Symmetrical in its layout, the garden is centred around a large pond in the shape of a boat deck, surrounded by side ponds.

On the far end of the garden is a hill covered with cypress trees together with a replica of the Temple of Love (the original is found close to the Petit Trianon palace, in the park of Versailles).

The garden also contains beautiful, large Italian renaissance urns, as well as a cascade of water in the form of a stairway.

The exotic garden, full of gigantic succulents and cacti, was initially known as the Mexican garden.

Almost destroyed during the great frosts of 1985, it was completely restored a few years later.

The rose garden, located at the tip of the property, has a variety of old roses and modern hybrids, while the many paths of the Provençal garden are lined with olive trees and pines, as well as rosemary, cistus, santolina and lavender, with decorations of Sèvres porcelain.

When Béatrice Rothschild still lived at the villa, there was also a small zoo in the garden, mainly inhabited by green parrots (but this has since long been removed).

Starting in 1912 and ten years onwards, Béatrice Rothschild would spend every winter here, as part of her annual rotation between her homes in Paris, Monaco and Deauville.

Her parties were memorable – one time she even had prima ballerina Anna Pavlova dance to the Chopin nocturnes in the French formal garden.

When she died from tuberculosis, in Davos, Switzerland in 1934, she had already bequeathed her estate to the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

During the Second World War, the villa was deserted and the area was mined, but once peace was restored, Louis Marchand returned and restored the gardens to their former glory. This is also when the villa was painted reddish pink (originally, it was painted in an ochre yellow).

Today, the villa and its gardens attract visitors from all corners of the world, who come here to experience its extravagance and beauty.

The villa carries an echo from another time and another world, of extreme wealth, defined by Béatrice Rothschild’s extensive taste and curiosity in matters of art, architecture and design.

Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild

Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France