Music festival at the media library
From Villa Virginie to the Villa-Marie library
| Joseph-Marie Thévenet , from a family of the Lyon bourgeoisie, acquired in 1892 the villa "Virginia" built in 1883(*) against the walls of the platform housing the cisterns of the Roman city. Of modest dimensions, the residence was enlarged in 1903 and 1905 by his son Joseph Marius Thevenet . It was at this time that it took the name of "Villa Marie".
Sold in 1941, it was transformed into a hotel-restaurant before being bought by the Mines de la Sarre in 1952 to accommodate the employees of the German firm during their holidays. After the Malpasset dam disaster (1959), the town of Fréjus bought the Villa Marie with the help of the Association of European Municipalities and the International Red Cross, and set up the municipal library there in 1963. (*): Emilie Michaud-Jeannin, The Palladian villas of Fréjus and Saint-Raphaël , 1988, p.142-144 |
An eclectic architecture
| The villa has an eclectic architecture characteristic of vacation homes built on the Côte d'Azur between the 1880s and 1920s.
The classically molded façade unfolds on two levels semi-circular and rectangular openings crowned with pediments and corbels. An entablature decorated with a frieze with palmette motifs supports broken pediments, skylights and fireplaces. In the center, a balustraded loggia is supported by twin columns of composite order. To the west, a canted front building forming a bow window serves as a terrace on the 1st floor. This element echoes the eastern corner pavilion, also decorated with a terrace. Emerging from the roof, a belvedere tower rises vertically, dominating the horseshoe staircase giving access to the park, below the villa. |
Médiathèque Villa Marie
447 rue Aristide Briand
