Villa Nellcote - Saint Jean Cap Ferrat

Origins: Château Amicitia

In 1899, Eugène Thomas, a member of the Second Empire's Pietris family and an honorary member of the Villefranche syndicate, restored the ruins of an old military base into a magnificent residence with large terraces overlooking the Bay of Villefranche. He named it Château Amicitia, meaning "friendship" in Latin.

The Comte de Brulatour and the Goldenberg Years

In 1904, the property was purchased by Comte Ernest de Brulatour, first secretary of the American Embassy in France, who added the wrought-iron gates with gold-leaf motifs, along with a matching main door flanked by two sphinxes.

Twelve years later, in 1916, the villa was bought by Samuel Goldenberg, one of only around 700 survivors of the Titanic disaster. Goldenberg and his wife, Nella, were passionate dog breeders and often judged international competitions. In 1902, they discovered a dog with distinctive characteristics, which they named Nellcote Gamin — the founding sire of the French Bulldog breed. Château Amicitia was subsequently renamed Nellcôte, after both the couple's American property and the dog's name.

Goldenberg did not keep the villa for long; following a divorce, he sold it in 1921 and moved to Villa Auvare in Nice. The Titanic disaster had left him temporarily blind for a month, and he later vowed that if his sight returned, he would dedicate part of his fortune to helping people with visual impairments. With his second wife, Edwige Garbowska, he went on to fund a foundation for the blind near Parc Valrose in Nice in 1924, and shortly before his death, established a building in Nice dedicated to the blind — still known today as the Fondation Goldenberg-Garbowska.

The Bordes Family

The villa was later bought by Alexandre Bordes, who, together with his brother Antoine (owner of the neighbouring Villa Tijuca), took over their father Antoine-Dominique Bordes' shipping company, which specialised in transporting nitrate fertiliser between Chile and France. The growing use of nitrate in agriculture from the 1880s onward brought the company enormous profits.

By 1914, the Bordes brothers operated a fleet of 43 vessels — including, at the time, the largest ship in the world, Le France — employing 64 full-time captains and more than 1,500 sailors. The family planted numerous exotic trees in the grounds, brought back by ship from South America and Asia, and were known for their generosity toward the local community and the commune's charitable office. In recognition of their legacy, the road leading up to the villa was renamed Avenue Louise-Bordes.

Keith Richards and Exile on Main St.

The villa gained wider fame in 1971, when it was rented by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, who recorded the album Exile on Main St. there using a mobile recording studio set up in the garden.

The power required for the recording equipment far exceeded what the property's domestic supply could provide; according to popular account, the solution was to run a cable from the house directly to the overhead line of the nearby railway. Many well-known figures stayed at Nellcôte during this period, including John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Gram Parsons.

The Villa Today

The property remains in excellent condition today, surrounded by mature trees, with its original architectural features fully intact.

Please note that this is not a property listing — Villa Nellcôte is not for rent or for sale. This article was written purely out of historical interest.