Chateaux de Valrose

Château de Valrose, Nice — winter residence rented by the Tereshchenko family in 1900.

The estate occupies approximately 10 hectares at 28 avenue de Valrose, below Cimiez, and is now the headquarters and science campus of Université Côte d’Azur. The principal château is protected as a French historic monument.

The Grand Château was begun in 1867 for the Russian railway financier Baron Paul von Derwies. The official university history credits David Grimm, Mikhaïl Makaroff and Antonio Crocci; French heritage records additionally identify Maraini, Bérenger and landscape designer Joseph Carlès. The building is neo-Gothic, constructed in pale tuffeau stone with a steep slate roof.

The grounds included:

• the Grand and Petit Châteaux;
• an opera theatre constructed between 1871 and 1873;
• an ornamental lake;
• a Russian-style isba;
• artificial ruins, statuary, terraces and tropical planting;
• monumental entrance gates from the Cimiez side.

The park was designed beginning in 1867 by Joseph Carlès, who remained responsible for it until 1913.

Tereshchenko connection

The regional heritage inventory explicitly records that the Valrose estate was rented to the Tereshchenko family in 1900, citing the society newspaper Le Monde élégant of 9 December 1900. An academic history of Valrose likewise refers to the Tereshchenkos as tenants during the winter of 1900.

The official university and regional heritage pages contain numerous exterior, interior and garden photographs, including the château, theatre, dining room, music room, park and belvedere.