Villa Regina Margherita

History

Queen Margherita of Savoy arrived for the first time in Bordighera in September 1879, a guest at the Villa Etelinda. The queen had been badly shaken after the attack that king Umberto I of Italy had suffered in Naples on 17 November 1878 and was having a hard time recovering. To fortify her, the doctors had recommended the Riviera and Bordighera. In January 1880, she returned to Rome, but the stay in Bordighera was so pleasant that the queen returned there several times, staying at the Hôtel Cap which was in Virgilio street, not far from Villa Etelinda. The hotel, which was considered among the most beautiful in the area, was on the side of the hill and enjoyed a splendid view.

In 1914, the Queen bought Villa Bischoffsheim, which had meanwhile become villa Etelinda, the new owner, Lord Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. Villa Etelinda had a huge park, and it was in this park that the queen had built her new house. Works began on 30 March 1914, under the direction of the Italian architect Luigi Broggi, the Queen assigned the design and creation of the gardens to the Prussian landscape designer Ludwig Winter assisted by the Belgium hydraulic engineer Paul-Vincent Levieux.

The villa, built in the baroque style of the eighteenth century, has a basement, a ground floor, two upper floors, and a large terrace on the top floor, from which a walkway gives access to the upper garden.

In the basement, Broggi provided for the local staff services such as ironing, laundry, etc. and technical areas with the boiler and the engine for the elevator. The ground floor includes the hall, the audience hall, the library, the room for the reception and the dining room. The entrance leads through a small door, to the private chapel of the queen.

A massive staircase, lightened by three large windows, leads to the upper floors. The stained glass, still original, is decorated with the double royal coat of arms of Queen Margaret and King Umberto I of Italy, both of Savoy. …

Trivia

Queen Margherita loved art and literature and had invited many artists to Bordighera both in the Villa and in the Cap Hotel, when she was staying there. Among them we can mention: Pompeo Mariani, who was already living in Bordighera, Giosué Carducci, Antonio Fogazzaro, Salvatore Gotta and Riccardo Zanella. In 1922 the painter Vittorio Matteo Corcos was a guest of the queen and painted her portrait.

In April 1925, prince Umberto II of Italy and Princess Marie José of Belgium spent a few days in the Villa. Their first meeting took place in 1916 at the castle of Lispida to Battaglia Terme, in Veneto.

On 4 April 1940, the city inaugurated opened in honour to the queen, a white marble statue by the sculptor Italo Griselli (1880–1950). The statue is located at the foot of the pine forest of the Cape, a short distance from the Church Sant'Ampelio.

In 2012 the Terruzzi family, through the Foundation Anna Fiamma Terruzzi funded entirely the temporary exhibition "A view of the twentieth century", a gallery of works by great artists of the twentieth century such as Giorgio de Chirico, Giacomo Balla, Lucio Fontana, Felice Casorati, Ligabue, Gino Severini and many others.