The Palladian Style

The charm of Saint-Raphal comes from an archetype of villas built in a para-palladian style.

These lavish villas, on a very simple plan, offered luxurious exterior decor in the palladian style. It should be born in mind that this style comes from the Italian Renaissance architect, Palladio, who venerated ancient architecture, its perfection, and its timelessness.

The architects for the town, particularly Pierre Aubl, were to take up this style again and apply it in a personal way to their work.

This style made full use of pillars, columns, verandahs, stairways and of course the ancient orders (Doric Ionic, Corinthian and Tuscan).

Some of these villas are also remarkable for the friezes decorating the cornices, painted friezes or in bas-relief with a flower or geometric design.

The Anglo-Norman Style

This style is found in all seaside resorts that developed during the Edwardian era (Belle Epoque) in France or in other countries (United Kingdom, Belgium)

The Industrial Revolution that began in England was to give rise to the massive rise in wealth of a part of the English population who then invested on the European coasts.

This is how in Saint-Raphal, the area of Valescure, until then nicknamed the desert was to develop, with the building of the golf course, stables, tennis courts and an Anglican church (today All Saints Chapel).

The Anglo-Norman style is characterised by steep rooves, with the weight requiring good support, hence the multiplication of wooden beams.

The use of wood is not trying to economise, but to express a pastoral metaphor. In a picturesque villa, the use of wood looks rustic, returning to nature, the antithesis of carved stone in the Haussmann style.

The Moorish Style

The Moorish style was very sought after in the Belle Epoque. In fact, at this period of great colonial building, you can find a very strong taste for Eastern architecture.

This was translated in France by the building of many edifices inspired by Byzantine architecture, such as the Sacr Cur de Montmartre, the Basilica and Marseilles Cathedral

In Saint-Raphal, the Notre Dame de la Victoire Basilic ais the most remarkable evidence of the Moorish style.

This style was also to influence the archtecture of private houses in Saint-Raphal, even if at the present time, very few villas in this style remain.

The Moorish style exists in many architectural details: stretching out little columns, the design of the capital, especially the finials with Turkish crescents but in particular the shape of Moorish arched windows.