The Villa was created in 1893 by the fashionable Danish architect Georg Tersling, a maestro of the French Belle Époque who also designed the Grand Hotel in Cap Martin, Montecarlo’s Hotel Metropole and numerous other villas commissioned by European aristocracy on the Côte d’Azur.
The monumental Villa Trianon, a homage to the Italian Renaissance, was designed for Georges de Montgomery, a diplomat and descendant of the Earls of Pembroke, and his wife Lucy. The villa went on to become a favourite haunt of the Empress Sissi and was later owned by Prince Danilo of Montenegro. Princess Ouroussoff, the wife of the Russian ambassador to Paris, lived here for many years and it is now home to a prominent jet set couple well-known in the international business world.
The main façade centres around a semi-circular rotunda adorned by a giant order of two red marble columns. The semi-circular terrace links the villa to the Italianate gardens through a dramatic double flight of steps, reminiscent of many Palladian Venetian villas. At night the façade is spectacularly floodlit by ground-level lighting.
The gardens below the villa are laid out in a regular geometric pattern with lawns edged by white granite kerbstones, surrounded by paths in white marble gravel. The statue of a female figure at the centre of the gardens directly in front of the villa is also in white marble. The harmonious geometry of the Italian gardens is especially attractive, as is the white of the garden’s embellishments, in pleasing contrast with the green of the lawns shaded by two towering holly oaks. The first level of the gardens is bordered on the seaward side by a carved white marble balustrade and two straight flights of steps that lead down to the impressive pool-cum-ornamental water feature on the lower terrace, forming a geometric backdrop in Neo-Classical style enclosing an ornamental grotto.
The flights of steps are softened by lush creepers dipping down towards the pool to minimise the architectural impact. The infinity pool, surrounded by specially-cut flagstones, is a feature of the property, ideally linking it to the blue of the sea below. At night it becomes a focal point in the grounds of the villa, with underwater lighting and floodlit surroundings. A semi-circular inlet on the seaward side of the pool with water spouts and special lighting effects softens the geometric design of the pool and mirrors the grotto opposite on the landward side.
While the upper gardens of the villa are in typical, formal Neo-Classical style, a different, less formal, approach has been used for the smaller terraces winding down to the sea, set in a luxuriant welter of untrammelled Mediterranean plants and flowers in bright colours and irregularly-paved paths for a more natural effect.
The whole renovation project is in perfect synergy with the owner’s style: “For me beauty is a creed, and art a way of life”. The Neo-Classical interior design of the villa also reflects this philosophy, where the original style has been carefully respected and enhanced by some valuable antiques from the family collection.
Laura Verdi
The monumental Villa Trianon, a homage to the Italian Renaissance, was designed for Georges de Montgomery, a diplomat and descendant of the Earls of Pembroke, and his wife Lucy. The villa went on to become a favourite haunt of the Empress Sissi and was later owned by Prince Danilo of Montenegro. Princess Ouroussoff, the wife of the Russian ambassador to Paris, lived here for many years and it is now home to a prominent jet set couple well-known in the international business world.
The main façade centres around a semi-circular rotunda adorned by a giant order of two red marble columns. The semi-circular terrace links the villa to the Italianate gardens through a dramatic double flight of steps, reminiscent of many Palladian Venetian villas. At night the façade is spectacularly floodlit by ground-level lighting.
The gardens below the villa are laid out in a regular geometric pattern with lawns edged by white granite kerbstones, surrounded by paths in white marble gravel. The statue of a female figure at the centre of the gardens directly in front of the villa is also in white marble. The harmonious geometry of the Italian gardens is especially attractive, as is the white of the garden’s embellishments, in pleasing contrast with the green of the lawns shaded by two towering holly oaks. The first level of the gardens is bordered on the seaward side by a carved white marble balustrade and two straight flights of steps that lead down to the impressive pool-cum-ornamental water feature on the lower terrace, forming a geometric backdrop in Neo-Classical style enclosing an ornamental grotto.
The flights of steps are softened by lush creepers dipping down towards the pool to minimise the architectural impact. The infinity pool, surrounded by specially-cut flagstones, is a feature of the property, ideally linking it to the blue of the sea below. At night it becomes a focal point in the grounds of the villa, with underwater lighting and floodlit surroundings. A semi-circular inlet on the seaward side of the pool with water spouts and special lighting effects softens the geometric design of the pool and mirrors the grotto opposite on the landward side.
While the upper gardens of the villa are in typical, formal Neo-Classical style, a different, less formal, approach has been used for the smaller terraces winding down to the sea, set in a luxuriant welter of untrammelled Mediterranean plants and flowers in bright colours and irregularly-paved paths for a more natural effect.
The whole renovation project is in perfect synergy with the owner’s style: “For me beauty is a creed, and art a way of life”. The Neo-Classical interior design of the villa also reflects this philosophy, where the original style has been carefully respected and enhanced by some valuable antiques from the family collection.
Laura Verdi
