Villa Valcormes
MonumentHidden Treasure
Villa Valcormes, located in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), is a medieval landmark built in the Middle Ages. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Medieval (11th-15th century)
- Location
- Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 43.3859, 5.3664
- Mérimée Reference
- PA13000098
Nestling in the Notre-Dame Limite district, Villa Valcormes is a Marseille country house built in 1885, with interior wall paintings and garden rockeries of rare bourgeois elegance.
History
In the heart of Marseille's 15th arrondissement, in the leafy district of Notre-Dame Limite, the Villa Valcormes is a refined embodiment of the art of living of Marseille's wealthy industrial bourgeoisie during the Belle Époque. Built in 1885, this discreetly charming bastide stands out for the richness of its interior decor - murals that bear witness to a pronounced taste for ornamental representation - and for the rocailles of its garden, these mineral and plant compositions that constitute a veritable open-air landscape cabinet of curiosities. What makes the Villa Valcormes so special is precisely the combination of sober domestic architecture and ambitious decorative schemes. While the façade adopts the restraint characteristic of late 19th-century bourgeois homes, the interior reveals a world teeming with painted ornaments, allegorical scenes and plant motifs, evidence of the industrial prosperity that its patron, the industrialist Antoine Emery, was clearly keen to flaunt. The other treasure of the estate is its rock garden. This clever folk art, very much in vogue in southern villas in the second half of the 19th century, transforms minerals, shells and moulded concrete into miniature landscapes, artificial grottoes and ornamental fountains. To stroll through these spaces is to pass through an aesthetic that is rare today, preserved from the fashions and demolitions that have swept away so many similar gardens. Purchased by the City of Marseille in 2016 and carefully restored, Villa Valcormes has found a new vocation as a health centre. Far from betraying its soul, this conversion has made it possible to preserve and enhance this local heritage, offering thousands of Marseillais an exceptional architectural setting for their day-to-day activities. It's a great way of reintegrating the building into the life of its neighbourhood.
Architecture
The Villa Valcormes belongs to the typological family of Marseille bastides, bourgeois residences whose tradition dates back to the seventeenth century and which underwent a revival in the nineteenth century under the influence of the eclectic styles in vogue. The building's compact, well-balanced massing is typical of buildings dating from the end of the Second Empire and the beginning of the Third Republic: two storeys, a low-pitched roof covered with canal tiles, facades punctuated by regular bays of classically proportioned openings. The sobriety of the exterior contrasts with the generosity of the interior decor. The murals are the main feature of the interior. Spread throughout the reception rooms, they develop ornamental programmes typical of Belle Époque bourgeois decoration: architectural trompe-l'œil, rural scenes, floral motifs and arabesques are interlinked on the ceilings and walls to create a colourful and meticulous whole. These decorations reveal the mastery of decorative painters trained in the academic tradition of Provence, even if their names are now lost. The rock garden is a remarkable example of a popular ornamental art form that was particularly popular in southern villas in the second half of the 19th century. Composed of mineral concretions, shells, pebbles and moulded concrete, it features artificial grottoes, fountains and mineral compositions reminiscent of the resort gardens of the Riviera and the Mediterranean coast. Today, this landscape ensemble is one of the few remaining examples of this type of creation in the urban fabric of Marseille.
Related Figures
Antoine Emery — industriel marseillais, commanditaire de la villa (1885)Architecte anonyme — concepteur de la bastide, identité non retrouvéePeintres décorateurs anonymes — auteurs des peintures murales intérieuresArtisans rocailleurs anonymes — créateurs des compositions de jardinVille de Marseille — acquéreur et restaurateur du monument (2016)
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Villa Valcormes located?
Villa Valcormes is located in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, France.
When was Villa Valcormes built?
Villa Valcormes dates back to a period built in the Middle Ages (11th-15th century).
Is Villa Valcormes open to visitors?
Villa Valcormes is currently closed to visitors.