Villa Casamaures, a breath of the Orient, a survivor at the gateway to the Alps

Nicknamed the "Lady of the Casamaures", its owner Christiane Guichard obtained its classification as a historical monument in 1986 and piloted four decades during its renovation, setting herself for "the double challenge of saving architecture and bringing it to life through creation" .

"From the start it was a place of life, a third place. From the start, in the rubble, there were exhibitions", relates the sixty-year-old alert, work coat and bohemian bun.

Perched since 1855 on the first slopes of the Chartreuse massif in Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux, the Casamaures, all in colonnades, exquisite arabesques, moucharabiehs and immense colored stained-glass windows, frankly stands out among its neighbors with a more sober style.

An entire section of the facade, in wood, comes from the Turkish pavilion at the Universal Exhibition of 1855, transported somehow to Grenoble. It opens onto a bright winter garden of 9 meters under the ceiling, filled with oriental trinkets.

The villa, which hosts several artists and cultural associations, overlooks terraced gardens adorned with exotic plants and sundials.

In addition to its exotic character, the house fascinates with its construction in molded cement or "white gold", a "revolutionary" technique for the time, notes Dominique Peyre, curator of Historical Monuments. "In architecture, the XIXth produced works of astonishing creativity", he underlines in a book devoted to the Casamaures.

War in Algeria

How did an oriental palace arise in the suburbs of Grenoble? Question of context, notes Béatrice Besse, art historian and author of a recent historical novel retracing the career of its designer, the Grenoble merchant Joseph Jullien dit Cochard.

The mid-XNUMXth century in Western Europe was a period of intense intellectual, political and industrial fermentation.

"Following Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt, there was enthusiasm for all that touched" the country, then extended notably to the Ottoman Empire. This fever particularly affects Grenoble where the Egyptologist Jean-François Champollion and the scholar Joseph Fourier lived, she explains.

This taste of an often fantasized Orient inspires many constructions. Some will survive, like the house of the writer Pierre Loti in Rochefort - closed since 2012 for a renovation of 7 million euros. Many will be destroyed, deemed irrelevant or victims of political tensions linked to the Algerian war in the 1960s.

If Cochard's life remains shrouded in mystery, it seems established that he never traveled to the East. His whimsical villa aimed to "impress the Grenoble bourgeoisie to establish its reputation", estimates Ms. Besse.

But he is unlucky: after 23 years of work, his second wife disinherits him, it seems to take revenge for having been deceived. Riddled with debt, he gives up the wonder before dying. His third wife, herself destitute, commits suicide with her son.

K-pop

The Casamaures then saw the owners parade, undergoing fragmentation and degradation. For 25 years, it housed a cheese factory, "Le bon lait". Its decline accelerated when the homeless took up residence there in the 60s and 70s.

It was little more than a ruin promised to the promoters when Ms. Guichard bought it in 1981, to the chagrin of the mayor at the time. "He thought that + it would be clean + to have a small building instead. I have a fine arts background and I found that shocking," she explains.

But today, this listed villa, crowned with numerous architectural awards, remains surrounded by old warehouses which are partly asbestos and occupied by squatters. "The laws protecting the surroundings are not applied", annoys the owner, deploring the "inertia" of the policies.

Despite this, the house attracts visitors from very diverse backgrounds, such as these two young girls who recently came to shoot a K-pop clip for a challenge on social networks. "She is a muse", welcomes the Lady of the Casamaures.