Palais de marbre, Historical monument in Nice, France

The Palais de Marbre, originally Villa Les Palmiers, is a two-storey stone mansion at 7/9 Avenue de Fabron whose central portico of four tall columns carries statues on its balustrade, with an ochre-yellow recessed wall behind and arched ground-floor openings between pilasters. Its Italian Renaissance and neoclassical design follows Palladian models, and the building has housed the municipal archives since 1963.

In 1871 the British art dealer Ernest Gambart bought about 17 hectares of the bankrupt banker Honoré Gastaud's Fabron estate and had architect Sébastien-Marcel Biasini build a marble-clad Italianate villa as a reception house and gallery for painters such as Rosa Bonheur and Lawrence Alma-Tadema. After Gambart died in Nice in 1902, the Russian baron Alexandre von Falz-Fein bought the estate in February 1905 and added a conservatory and ballroom; his daughter Thaïs was born there in 1911.

The palace reflects tastes from the 1870s by mixing Italian Renaissance and neoclassical design elements throughout its structure. These influences appear in the columns, cornices, and overall facade composition that still define how the building looks today.

The house sits on Avenue de Fabron and currently functions as the municipal archives where city documents are stored. Plan ahead if you wish to visit, as it is not a public museum with regular opening hours.

The south facade carries an English verse by John Keats engraved in the stone: "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever". The British art dealer Ernest Gambart chose it to state the ambition of a house meant as a reception venue and exhibition gallery for painters he supported, among them Rosa Bonheur and Lawrence Alma-Tadema.