Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild

The Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, also known as Villa Île-de-France, is one of the palaces on the French Riviera, imitating Renaissance-style palaces, built on a hilltop on the Cap Ferrat peninsula between 1905 and 1912 in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat by Baroness Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild (1864-1934).

“The museum offers a particularly vivid idea of what the residence of a great art lover of the Belle Époque was like, who showed a particular fondness for the 18th century.”

Upon her death in 1934, the Baroness bequeathed the management of her villa to a foundation bearing her name to open a museum there. On April 2, 1938, the museum opened to the public after restoration work on the villa and its garden but had to close quickly at the beginning of the Second World War. Even afterwards, its attendance remained confidential, and it was only in 1960, with a change of curator, that it began to gain recognition, attracting around 60,000 annual visitors.

In the 1990s, its management was entrusted to the private company Culturespaces, and a new scenography replaced that of 1960; The Académie des beaux-arts took over its management again in 2023. The annual number of visitors reached 130,000, making it one of the most visited sites between Nice and Menton.