VILLA BEATRICE

Strolling through the small port of Portofino and gazing to the left towards Paraggi and Santa Margherita Ligure, it is possible to see a building that stands upon the first promontory along the coast. Perhaps not everybody knows that this villa is not only one of the most panoramic points of the Gulf, but it can also be considered one of the most beautiful examples of early 20th century architecture in Italy because of its history and artistic features.

The building is now known with the name of Villa Beatrice, but its construction was requested by one of the most important industrialists of the 20th century, Attilio Odero.

The villa was designed in 1913 by the great Tuscan architect Gino Coppedè, a relevant figure in the Italian cultural world at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. At that time, the taste for medieval building style was the main architectural influence: it is still possible to observe the numerous amounts of buildings that were created at the time, with the attempt to revive Gothic and medieval features, characterised by their extravagant and opulent appearance.

For what concerns Liguria these tendencies are mainly represented through the work of Gino Coppedè: the architect was able to design villas, castles and noble palaces in which the taste for the ancient and the new materials and techniques that had become relevant through Art Nouveau combine through clever technological and artistical innovations. Villa Odero is among the buildings that can be included in this wide production, presenting most of the elements of the so-called Coppedè Style.