In Montpellier, the stylish Villa des Cent Regards

In the district of Aiguelongue in Montpellier, a strange villa almost abandoned in the form of medieval castle is the place of celebrations and gatherings.

The city of Montpellier not only visits to his Anatomy Museum , for a walk in the Saint-Roch district or Port Marianne. No, Montpellier, it’s also this little madness at the turn of a street with the mysterious Villa des Cent Regards . There are even some who nickname this space the "Maison du fada" (the house of the mad), with reference to its creator.

Birth of the Villa

It was in 1950 that a rather imaginative mason called Victor Grazzi had the idea of building a somewhat common building. He has always been passionate about reinforced concrete and decided to build a house in his image with his predilection material. Everything will be concrete, including doors such as windows or shutters.

This truly atypical house has unconventional lines for this type of building, straight lines with straight angles. This residence with medieval castles is also a love story, not only of a man who wants to demonstrate his skills (his degree would never be recognized by his bosses) but it is also with the help of his wife, Ida, that he will build this building.

It will be present at each stage, it fills the cement buckets, it spoils the concrete, it carries the buckets with the help of pulleys and ropes.

All the savings of Grazzi’s household will pass there and Victor then decides to use recovery materials to complete his personal “work”: the floor is covered with various cement tiles, the scrap and other materials are recovered to the darts, we even use mattress springs as iron rods to consolidate the concrete.

While the construction of the house is not completed, Ida dies. Victor Grazzi lives alone in his work of concrete and tries by all means to carry it to an end, adding here and there disparate and original decorative elements as a miniature replica of the particular hotel of the Coquille (which is found in the old Montpellier), plant elements, buis balls.

The house turns when the rays of the sun come to strike the facades, the whole becomes fair. Victor Grazzi then decides to call her house, the Villa des Cent Regards . According to him, it is enough to turn the house to carry 100 different eyes. Some will also say that we could count up to 100 small windows in the house that would look so much on the world.

A living cultural place

Subsequently, the Villa des Cent Regards became a cultural den for young people and young people.

While on the day, the children come to play knights who defend a castle of the Middle Ages, when the night falls, the place becomes a place of feasts but also the place of indelicate visitors who fly, who raid, who loot the decorative elements, who lacked the decorations, and that cover the walls of tags.

In the 1980s, the city of Montpellier acquired the Villa des Cent Regards but left it behind: the house became a ghost in the middle of the Aiguelongue district. It was necessary to wait until the years 2005 for the Villa to be bought by the association of building and urban professionals, COBATY and that the Leonardo da Vinci high school develop cultural activities.

Today, the Villa des Cents Regards has become an iconic cultural place where various events, exhibitions, artistic workshops, etc. take place.

To go, go to the 1000, rue de la Roqueturière in Montpellier, you will not be disappointed!