Villa Etelinda

History

The villa was built in Bordighera on the Via Romana by Raphaël Bischoffsheim, hence the name of the villa. Bischoffsheim was a banker of German origin who lived in Paris. He had met the architect Charles Garnier probably thanks to his father, who owned a large room next to the yards of the Paris Opera, where sometimes concerts were held.

In 1873 Bischoffsheim commissioned Garnier to build him a villa in Bordighera. The first drawings foresaw an ambitious project, both as regards the surface, than the styles and materials. Probably the villa had been placed in a higher position than the current one, both in order to enjoy a better view and to create a more imposing effect on visitors. Unfortunately the ardour of Bischoffsheim cooled and while designing the final plans Garnier received the order to cut costs. The architect was therefore forced to reduce the size and eventually adopted solutions very similar to those used for Villa Garnier.

Unfortunately there were disagreements between the rich German banker and the municipality of Bordighera. Bischoffsheim was having problems in enforcing the commitments made when he lent the moneys in December 1875 to the city to upgrade the Roman road. Bischoffsheim, who had bought land in the area and was building his villa, intended to upgrade the old mule track into an elegant path. He even had a project designed by Garnier. The loan had been bound to the project by the French architect, but the city council accepted the loan whilst approving a different project. It was only thanks to an awareness campaign by the citizens that the Garnier project was finally accepted in June 1877.

Another disappointment for Bischoffsheim came from the lack of enthusiasm for another of his proposals: to build an astronomical observatory on Montenero. Bischoffsheim bothered by the conflict with city officials decided to move its sphere of interests to France and funded an Observatory on the heights of Nice in 1878.

Of the original project, the villa kept some elements including the beautiful and slender tower, an element that Garnier had already used for his own villa. Another element which was kept is the polychrome mosaics on the facade and on the tower which are reminiscent of Moorish decorations. Of particular elegance is the RB monogram located between the arches of the loggia which dominates the entrance to the villa. …