Villa Santa Clara

Villa Santa Clara stands in Grasse beside the former Hugues Aîné perfume factory, linking architecture with the city’s industrial history. Built for public works contractor Pierre Ricord, the residence probably reached completion around 1916. Eugène Charabot acquired it in 1919 and made it the main residence of his perfume company.

From 1925, architect Léon Le Bel and engineer Albert Caquot shaped major extensions with Thorand et Cie. Two principal buildings join through a porch, while a roughly twenty-metre campanile rises from the enclosing wall. Terraced gardens connect the house to art objects and fragments of medieval ruins. The entrance courtyard rests on a reinforced-concrete base and carries patterned stone paving.

Neo-Florentine details give the exterior its character, including a loggia, arches, geometric forms, and Renaissance-inspired windows. Inside, a library combines reused wooden medallions, twisted columns, and panelled walls. The older structure retains brick vaults, while the later sections use poured-concrete floors. A large fountain beneath the open galleries closes the view across the terrace.