Our recent interior design and interior architecture project, Château de la Croix des Gardes, has been called ‘a contemporary reimagining of an historical masterpiece’. The largest remaining estate on the Cote D’Azur, this legendary Belle Époque Château is unparalleled in the beauty of its architecture, its sublime Mediterranean views, the scale of its surrounding gardens and its magical history. It has been an honour and a pleasure for Katharine Pooley to lead a formidable team of creatives in the complete redesign of this majestic home as featured in this month’s Architectural Digest France.
Dating back to the early 19th century, the chateau was built alongside a series of outstanding properties in the region (Villa Rothschild, Castle Vallombrosa, and Villa Romée, among others) that became known as Quartier des Anglais. In 1919, Swiss industrialist Paul Girod purchased the property and built a Florentine-style villa atop the hill, surrounded by twenty five acres of authentic hanging gardens designed by a famed landscape architect known throughout the region. These iconic gardens defined the estate, which would come to be known as the ‘Castle of la Croix des Gardes’.
Four years ago, the Château was bought by our client who had fallen in love with its incredible story. He decided to undertake a meticulous and complex restoration of the Chateau and gardens, in essence to recreate the splendour of its past, and came to Katharine Pooley, and our team of experienced architects and designers, to spearhead its restoration and transformation. The scope of works was large in scale and encompassed façade alterations, internal layout amendments and a total refit of all finishes, fixtures and furnishings. The building and gardens were stripped completely back and then carefully restored to their original splendour. The largest change was the reconfiguration of the rear façade back to the pure Italianate aesthetic in keeping with the original architectural design. The Katharine Pooley Team then designed, commissioned, procured, installed and styled every detail of every room as part of their full turn-key interior design service.
The final design is a celebration of art and artistry, the client’s incredible art collection a key component, and his passion a guiding force, Katharine has ensured every small detail reflects the finest work of European craftsmen and women and celebrates diverse world-leading craftsmanship that has been passed down for generations. A beautiful drawing room sits at the centre of the Château and connects the grand entrance hall to the extraordinary view outside – a notably spectacular view as it is the only Château high enough to have a 180 degree view of the sea in these parts. Soft-hued fabrics were chosen for the main sofa upholstery with a contrast soft green-blue damask fabric on the banquette seating mirroring colours from the gardens beyond. The pair of chandeliers overhead were made by a talented French workshop in Provence and each is hung from a delicate gilded ceiling rose. An antique Persian rug featuring nymphs and flowers sits upon the classic timber parquet floor with a contrast marble border.
The ground floor extends across two floors to include the drawing room, music room, dining room, kitchen and ballroom, all opening out from the central grand entrance hall and spiralling marble staircase. Throughout the ground floor French classical crystal chandeliers feature, many of them antique one-of-a-kind pieces, while six large lanterns hung on two bronze poles, are suspended though the centre of the staircase. The ballroom is particularly grand with its hand-painted moon-gold parchment wall panelling showing the original Japanese garden with peacocks, an intricately crafted marquetry bar that captures the leaf shapes of botanical specimens in the gardens and parquet flooring.
A new dusky pink plaster for the exterior façade of the Château was chosen and sandstone scrolling staircases, balconies, window and door frames were also added to the building’s exterior, reflecting the detailing originally in place in the 19th Century.
Terraces were reconfigured on all three levels, and new access points added to allow flow throughout the floors. Symmetry to the layout was restored by extending both of the property’s wings to allow for the creation of a generous ballroom to one side and a formal dining room to the other. Hallways and door openings were lined up throughout the property to ensure lines of sight could travel across its breadth and length.
The Château became famous in 1955 as the set of Hitchcock’s ‘To Catch a Thief’, starring Grace Kelly and Cary Grant. An iconic scene in the film showcases the drive up the winding mountain road that leads to the property. Legend has it that Grace Kelly immediately fell under the spell of this unique location. She would later go on to become Princess of Monaco, the tiny principality about an hour east of Cannes. Many of the interior details we created for our wonderful client reference the beautiful gardens surrounding the Château.
Staggered in front of beautiful sea views the twenty-five acres of surrounding gardens and woodland feature mature Cypress trees and an array of European botanical species in the symmetrical formal flower beds. The gardens were overgrown and in poor condition and a team of gardeners, botanists and landscape designers painstakingly reinstated the planting, stonework, follies, outhouses, pool and wisteria walkways to reflect their original splendour. The winter garden and Italianate gardens, sculpture-filled vistas, rockeries, waterfalls, fountains, infinity pool, and water lily ponds were immaculately refurbished and replanted. Much of the contents of these beautiful gardens then inspired the Château’s interior design.
The scope of works was large in scale and encompassed façade alterations, internal layout amendments and a total refit of all finishes, fixtures and furnishings. Above, you will find a photograph of the interior of the Italian Pavilion – it is one of the spaces very close to my heart and perfectly captures the timeless beauty of the rest of the Château and gardens. We commissioned a wonderful artist and friend, Piero, to paint all four walls with views of the gardens. It is not an exaggeration to say that hundreds of Europe’s most talented artists and artisans have worked under the Katharine Pooley Design Studio to breathe life into this beautiful building. Hand-stitched embroideries, hand-woven fabrics, bespoke cabinetry work and hand-painted wallpapers, frescos and intricate plaster panelling feature throughout all of the spaces. The process has been a complete joy to oversee.
The wealth of experience, craftsmanship and historical, ‘generations-old’, skill that has gone into this interior cannot be overstated, the quality of many pieces is museum grade, most items are completely one-of-a-kind and unrepeatable, and this makes the interior richly detailed and incredibly unusual. There are forty two different hand embroidered textiles featured in the Chateau, stitched by six different ateliers in France, Germany and England. A favourite detail of Katharine’s are the thirteen hand-painted murals, silk wallpapers and panels featured throughout the Chateau and pavilions, painted by eight different studios and artists, while the number of bespoke crafted joinery and furniture pieces throughout are too numerous to count, every room of this incredible home is filled with beautiful one-of-a-kind furniture, art and luxury home accessories.
