Inside The Most OPULENT Villas of The SOUTH OF FRANCE скачать в хорошем качестве

Inside The Most OPULENT Villas of The SOUTH OF FRANCE

Step inside the most exclusive villas of the French Riviera, where industrial fortunes, banking empires, and royal treasuries emptied themselves creating private paradises between azure sea and cerulean sky in a century-long architectural bidding war. ----------------------------- Inside Monaco Royal Family's "Old Money" Mansions:    • Inside Monaco Royal Family's "Old Mon...   ----------------------------- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction 0:56 #1 Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild 5:45 #2 Château de la Croë 11:15 #3 Villa Kerylos ----------------------------- First, discover Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, a rose-colored palace that makes Barbie's Dreamhouse look understated, occupying the narrowest part of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat peninsula with panoramic Mediterranean views like a monarch surveying her aquatic kingdom. Completed in 1911 by banking heiress Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild, this architectural masterpiece creates the sensation of being aboard a luxury ocean liner, with "port" and "starboard" sides offering sweeping vistas toward Beaulieu-sur-Mer and Villefranche-sur-Mer. The Grand Salon showcases the Baroness's talent for high-end architectural theft – paneling plundered from Paris's Hôtel de Crillon adorns walls hung with Louis XVI furniture and carpets extracted from Versailles, while nine themed gardens form a botanical United Nations around the property. Next, we visit Château de la Croë, the French Riviera's ultimate royal exile palace that became an oligarch playground, commanding attention at the exclusive tip of Cap d'Antibes through sheer aristocratic confidence rather than flashy design. This château found fame in 1938 when former King Edward VIII, who abdicated the British throne to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson, transformed it into "Château des Rois" (Castle of Kings), hosting Winston Churchill who celebrated his 40th wedding anniversary there. After passing through the hands of shipping titans Aristotle Onassis and Stavros Niarchos, the château was purchased in 2001 by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who invested over $100 million in renovations before the French government seized it in 2022 due to sanctions related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Finally, experience Villa Kerylos, arguably the most intellectually ambitious vacation home ever constructed on Mediterranean shores, reimagining ancient Greek architecture with twentieth-century comforts on a rocky promontory at Beaulieu-sur-Mer. The mastermind behind this Hellenic fantasy was Théodore Reinach, an intellectual polymath who collected academic achievements like others collect postcards and served as both a deputy for Savoie and professor at the Collège de France. Designed and built between 1902 and 1908 by architect Emmanuel Pontremoli, Villa Kerylos features a large inner courtyard surrounded by twelve columns of Carrara marble, nearly 2,000 square meters of mosaic floors installed by Venetian craftsmen, and tables with only three legs reflecting ancient solutions to uneven earthen floors. Despite its classical inspiration, the villa incorporated modern amenities like electric lighting, underfloor heating, and bathrooms with hot and cold running water – luxuries ancient Greeks would have considered divine interventions. Through these magnificent villas, we witness how banking heiresses, abdicated kings, and academic polymaths translated their innermost fantasies into limestone and marble, creating architectural legacies that continue to captivate visitors today. Each property reveals not just extraordinary wealth but distinct visions – from Béatrice's pink palace born from unlimited divorce anger to Edward VIII's royal exile headquarters to Reinach's scholarly recreation of ancient Greece with modern plumbing. These grand villas represent the ultimate architectural expression of their owners' personalities, ambitions, and sometimes eccentricities – proving that the true masterpieces of the French Riviera aren't hanging in museums but perched on promontories between sea and sky.