Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Marie-Antoinette villa, located at the corner of the avenue de Royat and the rue d'Assas in Chamalières, was built around 1885 in an area that was then booming bourgeois. Between 1880 and the First World War, this area housed cossuous houses surrounded by gardens, now gradually replaced by collective buildings. The villa is distinguished by its complex plan, mixing forebody, landings and delusions in return, as well as by its architectural eclecticism, combining weighted asymmetry, neo-Louis XIII silhouette and neo-Renaissance decor.

The villa's site contains traces of ancient occupation, with archaeological discoveries attesting to a Gaulish presence (gold biturige state) and Roman (teaching, pitchers, bronzes). The road to Clermont, the future avenue de Royat, was opened in 1879, facilitating the urbanization of the neighborhood. The villa itself, erected between a courtyard and a fenced garden, features remarkable elements such as a bowl-window topped by a wrought zinguing dome, a central span with superimposed balconies, and carved skylights.

The facade on the garden reveals a particularly neat decoration: pilasters, columns, stone cornice-balustrade, and egg-eyes bounded by a zinc balustrade. These details, of superior quality to contemporary Vichyssian villas, suggest the intervention of a Parisian architect, although his identity remains unknown. Classified as a Historical Monument in 1998, the villa is an exceptional testimony of bourgeois architecture of the late 19th century in Auvergne.

The excavations carried out during its construction revealed ancient artifacts, confirming the long-standing occupation of the site. The villa, with its commons and garden, forms a coherent whole, protected for its originality and its state of conservation. Its location, in the only avenue of the agglomeration where this architectural style has flourished, reinforces its heritage interest.

The inscription for the Historical Monuments in 1998 covers the villa, its communes, the garden and its fence, stressing the desire to preserve this heritage. Although the neighbourhood has evolved into an urban densification, Villa Marie-Antoinette remains a unique example of architectural eclecticism, combining historical references and decorative innovations, typical of the bourgeois achievements of the Belle Époque.

External links