The Villa Paradiso (or Paradisio) is a large villa in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, France built at the start of the 20th century by the architect Constantin Scala. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

(1939–45) it was used by the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

for its

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

scholars. The villa continues to be used for cultural purposes.

Location

The Villa Paradiso was built around 1900 by the architect Constantin Scala for the baroness

Hélène van Zuylen Baroness Hélène van Zuylen van Nijevelt van de Haar or Hélène de Zuylen de Nyevelt de Haar, née de Rothschild (21 August 1863 – 17 October 1947) was a French author and a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family. She collaborated ...

, née de Rothschild. It is an imposing building surrounded by a large garden. The property is in the north of the old city of Nice, almost east of the '' Musée Marc Chagall''. The grounds cover . After World War II (1939–45) various public facilities were added including a children's playground and an outdoor amphitheater. In spring the park blooms with many flowers in different colors.

Académie française

The Académie de France en Rome left the

Villa Medici The Villa Medici () is a Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, ...

in 1940 during the war. The next year, at the instigation of

Jérôme Carcopino Jérôme Carcopino (27 June 1881 – 17 March 1970) was a French historian and author. He was the fifteenth member elected to occupy seat 3 of the Académie française, in 1955. Biography Carcopino was born at Verneuil-sur-Avre, Eure, son of a ...

, the Academy took up residence in Nice at the Villa Paradiso. Its public rooms and huge stables were hastily converted into studios for the artists. These were the architect

Bernard Zehrfuss Bernard Louis Zehrfuss (Angers, 20 October 1911 – Neuilly-sur-Seine, 3 July 1996) was a French architect. Life He was born at Angers, into a family that had fled from the Alsace in 1870 after the Franco-Prussian War. Zehrfuss's father was ki ...

, who won the Grand Prix de Rome for architecture in 1939 and led the

Oppède Oppède (; oc, Opeda) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. ''Oppidum'' is the Latin word for 'town'. History It is in fact two villages: Oppède-le-Vieux ("the old" in Frenc ...

group, and Pierre-Robert Lucas, who won the Grand prix de Rome for painting in 1937. René Leleu, who won the Grand Prix de Rome for sculpture in 1939, worked at the Villa Paradiso and then in Fontainebleau.

Later use

The villa and grounds became the property of the city of Nice after the war. The city let the sculptor Marcel Mayer use one of the studios, where he executed various public commissions for seven years. He had been imprisoned in Germany and then in

Rava-Ruska Rava-Ruska (, Romanization of Ukrainian, translit. ''Rava-Rus'ka''; ; , Rave) is a city in Lviv Raion, Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine. It is a border town between Ukraine and Poland. The Rava-Ruska (border checkpoint), border checkpoint is situ ...

, Ukraine during the war. In the late 1940s the Nice Conservatory was installed at the Villa Paradiso. From 1957–2006 the ''Académie Internationale d'Eté de Nice'' (Nice International Summer Academy) was held at the Villa Paradiso in the premises of the conservatory. As of 2015 the city's ''Direction centrale de l'education'' was housed in the building.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paradiso, Villa Buildings and structures in Nice Villas in France Institut de France