Villa Kerylos

Villa Kérylos stands on a small rocky promontory at Beaulieu-sur-Mer, on the Riviera between Nice and Monaco, and it is one of the most unusual houses in France: a faithful reconstruction of an ancient Greek villa of the second century BC, built in the early twentieth century for a French scholar. The Greek name Kérylos means kingfisher, a bird associated in ancient myth with calm seas, and the villa sits right at the water's edge, facing the Mediterranean in a setting that must have seemed to its owner the closest thing to the shores of the Aegean.

The house was commissioned by Théodore Reinach, a French archaeologist, historian, mathematician and politician who came from a wealthy family and was passionate about ancient Greece. He worked closely with the architect Emmanuel Pontremoli, who had studied in Rome and Athens, and the two spent years studying the houses of the island of Delos, the well-preserved ancient town in the Cyclades, to create a design that reproduced Greek domestic architecture. Construction took from about 1902 to 1908, and nothing was left to chance. Craftsmen worked in marble, bronze and wood, and the furniture was designed in ancient styles by the cabinet-maker Louis Majorelle, based on the forms known from vase paintings and sculpture.

Inside, the house is arranged around a central courtyard, a peristyle, with columns of marble, which gives it a cool, bright core. Rooms open off it: a dining room, a library, bedrooms, a bathroom and a music room, all decorated with painted friezes, mosaics and reproductions of Greek art, and equipped with beds, chairs and tables of ancient design. Reinach and his family lived in the villa as far as possible according to a Greek model, with dinners served on couches, though they added modern comforts, such as concealed heating and plumbing. The interiors offer a rare glimpse into a time when scholarship and art were combined in the creation of a private world.

The gardens, planted with Mediterranean species such as olives, cypresses and palms, descend to the sea, and a small private harbour and a terrace make the setting memorable. The villa was left by Reinach to the Institut de France in 1928, and it has been open to the public as a museum for decades, with the Institut and the Centre des monuments nationaux caring for it. Exhibitions and events, including concerts and evening visits in summer, are held at the villa.

Beaulieu-sur-Mer lies about ten kilometres east of Nice, and the villa can be reached by train or bus along the coast. It makes a good outing with the nearby Cap Ferrat, where the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild and its gardens are a short walk away. Allow at least an hour. Tickets are sold on site, and opening hours vary by season, with extended hours on summer evenings. The villa suits lovers of archaeology, architecture and interior design.