Casa del Mare, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin: the history of a Tersling villa and why it is confused with Mobutu’s Villa Maria Irina

Casa del Mare is a Belle Époque villa by the Danish architect Hans-Georg Tersling, set above the Baie de Roquebrune between Monaco and Menton. Its owners have included a British financier who held concerts for two hundred guests, an Italian industrialist and the film producer Dino De Laurentiis with the actress Silvana Mangano.

Its history is often mixed up with that of another villa about a kilometre away on Cap Martin: Villa Maria Irina, once called Villa del Mare and owned by Mobutu Sese Seko, president of Zaire. Here is the story of both houses, and why they are so often confused.

Two houses, two locations

Casa del Mare stands on avenue Le Corbusier, above the Plage du Buse on the Baie de Roquebrune. Villa Maria Irina is out on the Cap Martin peninsula, around a kilometre away. They are separate properties.

Where the confusion comes from

Casa del Mare has carried that name since at least the 1950s, as photographs of the De Laurentiis family there show. Some later sources refer to it as Villa del Mare instead.

The Mobutu house was known as Villa del Mare during Mobutu’s time and was renamed Villa Maria Irina after his death. Its original name is not known.

The two names are almost identical, and both villas are attributed to Tersling and date from the same period. As a result, several published accounts have combined their histories, wrongly placing Mobutu at Casa del Mare or De Laurentiis at Villa Maria Irina.

Casa del Mare: built between 1903 and 1905

According to an architectural record citing the land registry archives in Nice, the land was bought in 1903 by Kate Pawle, who commissioned Tersling to design the house. The property was sold during construction: on 26 October 1904 it passed to Bessie O’Hagan, who completed the project around 1905.

Tersling (1857–1920) was one of the leading architects of the Riviera during the Belle Époque. His other work in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin includes the Grand Hôtel du Cap Martin (1890) and Villa Cyrnos, built for Empress Eugénie in 1892.

Casa del Mare: the architecture

The villa is in the Belle Époque style, mixing French classical, Louis XVI and Mediterranean influences across three levels. Its defining features are a central rotunda with a loggia and a monumental staircase descending to the park and the sea, with terraces overlooking the water.

Inside, a white marble entrance hall is supported by Corinthian columns. The ballroom has a mosaic floor, and the four reception rooms are decorated with silk-lined walls and wood panelling. Apart from a long marble fireplace, which has been moved, the villa remains true to its original design.

The size of the estate varies between accounts: one describes four acres of grounds, while the architectural record gives a plot of around 20,000 m².

Casa del Mare: the O’Hagan years

The first major owner was Henry Osborne O’Hagan, a British financier who helped create the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers in 1900.

O’Hagan regularly held concerts at the villa for around two hundred guests. The pianist Walter Rummel performed Wagner, Chopin and Bach. He sometimes accompanied Frances Saville, a neighbour at the Villa Miramar, or the internationally known singer Mary Lewis, O’Hagan’s adoptive daughter.

One account adds that from November 1918 to April 1919, just after the First World War, the villa was rented by a Miss Angas as a holiday home for British nurses who had served during the war.

O’Hagan’s time at the villa ended in 1930. Some accounts describe his disappearance that year, while others refer to his death. Furniture, garden statues and parcels of land were then sold at auction.

Casa del Mare: from Donegani to De Laurentiis

Accounts differ on the next owner. One source says the villa was bought by another Englishman. Other sources name the Italian industrialist Guido Donegani, who led the Montecatini group. According to one account, the Art Deco designer Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann worked on the interiors during the Donegani period.

In 1950, according to one source, scenes from the film My Daughter Joy, starring Edward G. Robinson, were shot at the villa.

In 1955, the film producer Dino De Laurentiis bought Casa del Mare. He and his wife, the actress Silvana Mangano, spent Easter, summer and winter holidays there with their family. The Riviera photographer Edward Quinn photographed the couple and their daughters at the villa that year. Their circle on the coast included Gina Lollobrigida, Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina.

According to one source, Casa del Mare later belonged to Akram Ojjeh, the Saudi businessman who founded Techniques d’Avant Garde (TAG).

Villa Maria Irina: Mobutu’s residence on Cap Martin

Villa Maria Irina, then called Villa del Mare, was the Riviera residence of Mobutu Sese Seko, president of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. One account says he owned it from the early 1990s. The estate includes a swimming pool and a helipad.

According to one account, Mobutu visited only occasionally, but a staff of at least sixty people, including servants, cooks, butlers and armed guards, was always present. In the months before his regime fell in May 1997, Mobutu divided his time between medical treatment in Switzerland and his residence in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. He died in exile in Morocco in September 1997.

Villa Maria Irina: after Mobutu

After Mobutu’s death, the villa was bought by the Russian businessman Shalva Chigirinsky, who renovated it and renamed it Villa Maria Irina. Sources differ on how and when: one says Mobutu’s heirs sold it to him in 2001, another that he bought it in 2005 from the French state, which had seized it after Mobutu’s death.

In 2009, Chigirinsky reportedly agreed to sell the villa to repay a debt to the energy company Sibir Energy.

Little reliable information has been published on the villa’s history before Mobutu, and its construction date and first owners remain unknown.

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin lies between Monaco and Menton. Alongside its Tersling villas, the commune is home to Eileen Gray’s villa E-1027, Le Corbusier’s Cabanon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Coco Chanel’s former villa, La Pausa.