Villa 1925 du Domaine du Rayol

Witness of a sumptuous past, the Domaine du Rayol, which was the property of a rich banker, ruined by the crash of 1929, then of a famous aircraft manufacturer, allows to imagine what was the corniche des Maures at the beginning of this century. These different owners built, a few years apart, 2 luxurious houses, nestled in the heart of a magical garden.

This villa, listed in the Inventaire Supplémentaire des Monuments Historiques, is the most recent of the two. It received the label "Patrimoine du XX° siècle" on March 1st, 2001.

Built around 1925 at the end of the estate, it is part of the architectural research trend of the inter-war period.

The distribution remains that of a private mansion with one part for the residence, the other for the services and the domesticity. The exteriors display the elements of a regionalist reading. But here we find a logic of distribution, a desire for legibility of functions in the exterior elevations, a particular care for the composition of volumes and a layout characteristic of a modern construction.

Such a realization could not be limited to the simple architectural aspect. Thus, we find an interior design that was the result of a decoration work:
- a beautiful bathroom on the first floor, frankly modernist, with a sumptuous cubist floor decoration in industrial sandstone tiles,
- reception rooms and bedrooms treated in a very refined classical style,
- fireplaces inspired by the XVIIth century in the hall,
- beautiful woodwork with panels decorated with monumental oak curtain boxes throughout the first floor,
- wrought iron radiator covers.