Villa Kérylos
Villa Kérylos is a museum in Beaulieu-sur-Mer built to resemble an ancient Greek home. The building features a central courtyard surrounded by columns, rooms with mosaic floors, period-style wooden furniture, painted walls with Greek-inspired designs, and a gallery of plaster casts of famous Greek statues.
The villa was built between 1902 and 1908 by French archaeologist Théodore Reinach, who drew inspiration from ancient Greece. After Reinach's death in 1928, he bequeathed the house to the Institut de France, and it opened to the public as a museum in 1967.
The name Kérylos means kingfisher in Greek, symbolizing the connection to the sea. Today visitors experience rooms decorated with patterns and motifs that reflect how wealthy Greeks lived, from the furniture arrangement to the mythological scenes on the floors.
Visit during daylight hours to see all the decorative details and mosaics clearly. The site is accessible by public transportation or car, and visitors using self-propelled wheelchairs can explore the grounds without difficulty.
Architect Emmanuel Pontremoli designed the building based on ancient homes from the island of Delos in Greece. The estate is surrounded by the sea on three sides, giving it a similar waterside proximity to the original Greek coastal sanctuaries that inspired it.
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