Le Mas d'Aréthuse - Roquebrune Cap Martin

A House of Four Names

The villa at Roquebrune Cap Martin has carried four names since it was remodelled in 1893: Le Mas d'Aréthuse, then Augusta, then Villa Barbara, and today, Villa Trianon. Each name marks a different owner. The house itself, set within a ten-hectare park, has outlasted all of them.

Georges de Montgomery commissioned the 1893 remodelling of the neoclassical villa, working with Danish architect Hans Georg-Tersling. Montgomery named the result Aréthuse, after the Greek huntress and companion to Artemis. The villa's red marble pillars and large terrace, overlooking the sea, became one of its defining features — and one of its most debated. In 1899, La Revue de l'Art published a critique judging the villa's architecture unbalanced and lacking in taste, and suggested the architect had used too much marble and bronze.

Grand Designs

The house was built around a grand entrance hallway leading to two living rooms, a smoking room, and two dining rooms. Guests stayed in one of seven suites. One dining room was reserved for the summer months, its walls covered in antique wood beneath a blue-painted ceiling decorated with golden flames. One of the living rooms held eight Delaunay-signed armchairs brought from the Château de Versailles, along with a carved wooden table bearing the medallions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The villa's library held some five thousand books, and the first floor included a darkroom and laboratory for photography.

Outside Grandeur

The grounds included stables for up to ten horses, a garage for seven cars, kennels, a hen house, greenhouses, and staff quarters, set within a park of cactus, palm, and sisal plants.

The Montgomerys

Montgomery served as a diplomat in Brazil, Belgium, and Spain. He loved France, though he never took French nationality. His wife, Lucy de Montgomery, was Scottish — the great-granddaughter of a Swedish miniaturist and granddaughter of a baron. She was a poet, musician, and interior designer, and became close friends with Empress Elisabeth of Austria, a frequent visitor to the villa. Lucy composed a piece of music in the Empress's honour, titled Ode à l'impératrice d'Autriche. In 1897, an anarchist murdered the Empress.

End of an Era

Georges de Montgomery died in 1900. His widow spent less time at the villa afterward, preferring their property in Italy, and rented Mas d'Aréthuse for a number of years to Princess Ouroussoff, wife of the Russian Ambassador to Paris.

Prince Danilo de Montenegro then bought the villa, renamed it Augusta, and lived there until 1924. The next owner, Sir Pomeroy Burton — a British press magnate and president of Associated Newspapers — renamed the house Villa Barbara and kept the property for several years before building the Château de la Croë on the Cap d'Antibes.

Today the villa is known as Villa Trianon and has conserved many of its original features.

This article has been written solely for the history of the villa. It is not a real estate listing.