VILLA DI SAN MARTINO & DEMIDOFF GALLERY
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Summer residence of Napoleon and gallery of Count Anatole Demidoff, located in the San Martino Valley.
Napoleon's summer residence acquired in June 1814, immersed in the flourishing vegetation of a valley that scans the continent in the distance. Worth seeing: the outbuildings, the garden, the greenhouse and the gallery, on the ground floor, where various documents relating to the emperor's life and his stay on the island are on display (engravings, press articles, paintings).
The villa, with its simple architecture, allows visitors to visit various rooms including the Egyptian Room and its trompe-l'oeil walls, the Room of the Love Knot with a fresco symbolizing the love between Napoleon and Marie-Louise of Habsburg-Lorraine, his second wife, as well as paintings and furniture in precious mahogany.
The Demidoff Gallery, with its neo-classical architecture, is the work of Count Anatole Demidoff, husband of Napoleon's niece, Mathilde de Monfort, who in 1851 wanted to build a building worthy of the imperial period to house his collection of Napoleonic memorabilia.
It should be noted that the exteriors of Bonaparte's residences were neglected. What desolation! For the emperor, who was passionate about gardens, considered them as rooms in his house. He worked there, received, sometimes even slept. In 300 days of exile, Napoleon boosted the economy and modernised the town planning of this small island by changing laws, discovering springs, laying out roads, planting olive and chestnut trees... We were disappointed by the almost abandoned state of the exteriors, which makes it difficult to imagine the splendours of the past.
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