Villa Nobel is a historic residence in Sanremo, on corso Cavallotti, in the eastern part of the town. It was the last home of the Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel, who died there on 10 December 1896, and since 2002 it has been open to the public as a museum.
What to see
The villa was built in 1871 to a design by the architect Filippo Grossi, for the Rivoli pharmacist Pietro Vacchieri, who had bought the land a year earlier. A description of the time praised the lightness and elegance of its forms. The original building was in an eclectic Moorish Revival style, and later work accentuated its extravagance. On 28 July 1874 Vacchieri sold it to the Genoese knight Lazzaro Patrone, whose heir later sold it to Nobel.
In 1892 Nobel entrusted the architect Pio Soli with a complete renovation, which raised the building by one floor and gave it a mansard roof. The scientist called it «Villa Mio Nido», my nest, and moved there mainly for health reasons. The year after his death his heirs sold the property to Max Adolphe Philipp, director of the German dynamite company, whom Nobel himself had designated as executor of his will in 1893. Since 1969 the villa has belonged to the community and has hosted meetings, events and cultural occasions.
Visiting
Since 2002, after a conservative restoration that brought it back to its original forms, the villa can be visited and houses the Nobel museum «Scopri l'Ottocento», devoted to the discoveries and inventions of the nineteenth century. Opening hours and tickets should be checked on the official website, villanobel.it.
Our editors' tip
In the same San Martino district, near Villa Nobel, stands Villa King, an Art Nouveau house built by Pietro Agosti in 1909 under the name Villa Spinola. Its entrance gate, in wrought iron assembled with studs riveted one by one, was made by a local blacksmith, «Baccicin» Giordano.
