Villa Kerylos

Today was “Journees de Patrimoine” in France, which means that a lot of historical buildings are open, without an entry fee, all weekend. So we decided to take advantage of this. But due to our lack of internet access (which we are trying to sort out…) we were unsure of what was open, we had counted on visiting the tourist info and finding out. But of course, this being a Sunday, it was closed.

So we decided to chance on Villa Kerylos, a famous –style Greek villa-museum in Beaulieu-sur-Mer (which means “beautiful place on the sea” in French – and a very nice place it is indeed). Unfortunately, since the Villa isn’t publicly funded, we had to pay an entry fee (although it was lower than normally).



Villa Kerylos was built between 1902 and 1908 for Theodore Reinach – a quite remarkable character who was, among other things, an archeologist, numismatic, historian and also a senator for Savoy. And also quite obviously, a big fan of ancient Greece. The appointed architect (Emmanuel Pontremoli), decided to model the villa on the rich mansions of the Delos island, which is situated in the middle of the Aegean sea.



I have to admit we were very impressed by the villa. It’s kind of like a modern building (from its time), but really made to look like ancient Greece (including the decoration, furniture, garden, everything!). A real one-of-a-kind masterpiece!





There was also a pretty cool Paris Match photographic exhibition (the photographs being placed amongst a collection of replicas of ancient Greek statues – quite an interesting idea) with photos of film stars, artists and other celebrities.

A well-spent 12 euros, all in all!