Nice’s authentic Russian-style chalet granted lottery funding for its restoration

You will not see it when walking along Nice’s Avenue Valrose, because it is hidden behind an elevated stone wall and protected by vegetation.

Valrose, a hilly part of north-east Nice, is the location of one of Côte d'Azur University’s campuses, for engineers and scientists. Administrative services now occupy its impressive castle. The nearby theatre is often used for video shoots, while facing the sprawling 10-hectare park are more buildings. 

The chalet Montebello serves as the entrance check-in building, while the amphitheatres de biologie and sciences naturelles host biology and natural science classes.

Up on a hill facing the city from above, surrounded by centennial pine and cyprus trees, lies l’Isba de Valrose, a small Russian-style chalet listed as a Monument historique in 1991 but whose wood is derelict and whose slate roof is under threat of collapse.

Isba de Valrose

It was selected by the Loto du Patrimoine from the Fondation du Patrimoine, a non-profit organisation whose mission is to safeguard and promote local French heritage, as one of 100 projects greenlit for renovation.

“It will both be a restoration and rehabilitation,” said Dominique Brossard, in charge of the heritage preservation department at Côte d'Azur University. Renovation efforts have an estimated cost of €740,000.“

It felt indispensable to get the isba the funding it needed,” said Jacques Joncour, representative for the Alpes-Maritimes department at the Fondation du Patrimoine.

Being listed as a Monument historique opens it up to state funding – since the isba is part of a university that is owned by the French state, funding was hitherto impossible, Mr Joncour said, which made the remaining balance for a renovation effort balloon over the last decade.

Russian origins

The Isba of Valrose was brought from Kiev by Baron Paul von Derwies, a Russian who made his fortune building railways. He dismantled it piece by piece, shipped and reassembled it in Valrose Park in 1870.

He had bought the land in 1867 and commissioned architects to design a grand chateau in an eclectic style mixing Gothic Tudor, Romanesque and Renaissance influences.

“The isba is a shelter, a curiosity, a souvenir,” said Dominique Larebo, a Phd historian who specialises in art and civilisation history, emphasising the emotional reasons behind its construction.

An isba is, according to its Russian etymology, a dwelling populated year-round by farmers and peasants. Mr von Derwies used it, however, as a datcha, a secondary residence in Russia, as he lived in Valrose from late October to early April to avoid the cold winters of Ukraine.

The building reveals many contrasts, argued Mrs Larebo. Its wooden exterior clashes with the cold stone of the chateau; while the constant noise and activity around the chalet fades, here tranquility sets in. The modest dwelling is in contrast to the opulence of the castle.

The isba is considered one of the very few authentic Russian chalets still standing in France, its wooden structure is made of fir logs assembled à mi-bois, a traditional interlocking technique that gives it both strength and ornamentation.

The façade carries old Cyrillic inscriptions carved into the wood, with moral proverbs such as “Beer is not nectar, mead not ambrosia when love surpasses them both”.

“This project will help increase historical knowledge around the building,” said Antoine Madelénat, the architect in charge of monuments historiques based in Alpes-Maritimes and who leads the renovation effort.

He will order two studies on the origin and the quality of the wood and the results will hopefully help him to determine the closest wood to use as replacement – probably pine, he said – as well as ascertain the age of the wood.

He also hopes to shed more light on which elements of the isba were built elsewhere and transported to Nice, and which were constructed there.

The restoration involves work on both structural and decorative wooden elements.

Damaged wood will be removed and repaired. Balconies and railings restored, decorative trims and lambrequins revised, windows and shutters repaired, rotten floor and ceiling boards replaced, floors and interior walls refurbished. The attic will also be restored and reopened and the three original ornamental finials, which fell over time, reproduced.

The Château de Valrose became known as the ‘Bayreuth of Nice’ in the late 1870s and 1880s, drawing Europe’s high society and celebrated artists such as violinist Joseph Joachim and soprano Adelina Patti.

Tragedy struck the Baron in 1881 when his daughter Vera died suddenly; two days later, von Derwies himself succumbed to grief.

His heirs mismanaged the fortune, and the estate changed hands several times before being acquired by the city in 1957. In 1965, it became home to the university headquarters. The isba was used as a cafeteria until around 2020 before it was closed.

Côte d'Azur University said it will be used to host international students, once restoration is completed.

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