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The € 500 million villa in France built by the King of Belgium as a gift for his mistress

It was in 1902 when king of Belgium, Leopold II, decided to build a villa as a gift for his mistress. The building was named after him, today it is called Villa Leopolda, and is one of the most expensive buildings in the world.

The villa was designed and built from 1929 to 1931 by American architect Ogden Codman, Jr., on an estate that once belonged to King Leopold II and was offered as a gift to Blanche Zélia Joséphine Delacroix’s mistress, also known as Caroline Lacroix. After the king’s death, Delacroix was ousted from the villa and his nephew, King Albert I, became its owner, and during World War I it was used as a military hospital.

Lebanese banker Edmond Safra bought the estate in 1988 and left it to the widow of Lily Safra, who died in 1999, who is also the current owner of the villa.

When Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov tried to buy it in 2008, its value was estimated at an astronomical sum of 500 million euros – equivalent to about $ 750 million at the time.

This is a luxury villa in Villefranche-sur-Mer, in French Riviera, which covers an area of ​​18 acres and has 11 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, outdoor kitchen, swimming pool and helipad. Belle Epoque style has been declared an architectural monument and has been included in the list of architectural heritage sites in the greater Provence-Alps-Cote d’Azur region.

The impressive villa It was also used as a natural setting in various film productions such as the 1948 film “The Red Shoes”, with the heroine climbing the stairs of the villa thinking that she had been invited to dinner. Instead, she will find out that she will be given the leading role in the new ballet. The site was also used for the filming of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1955 romantic thriller “The Hunt for the Thief”.

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