It was Henri Tiranty, a member of an old Nicois family, that in 1875 built a vast thirty room villa with a red facade overlooking the bay of Villefranche sur Mer.
A few years later, the demeure was rented for a season to the author of “Le Feu et l’enfant de volupté”, the famous Italian writer, the Prince of Monte Nevosa, Gabriel d’Annunzio, who renamed the property “La Schifanoia”. He built a property a few years later in his home country called Schifamondo (meaning far away from the world) which he never lived in. Other famous people stayed in the villa which kept its name: The Terestchenkos from Russia, the marquis of Ormade, the daughter of the Duke of Westminisiter, or the Count of Chioja. During the First World War, the successor of Henri, Carmen Tiranty, transformed the villa into a temporary hospital. Using his own money, he installed around 60 beds and put in place a team of doctors and nurses and used all his energy and time to bring help and comfort to the injured. His good work earned him a legend of honor medal. The Villa Schifanoia was then bought by Jacques Stern, before being transformed into a medical centre for the partially deaf by Guy Perdoncini, the mayor of Villefranche from 1865 to 1971. During the past few years, the property has been remarkable restored and redecorated, even if the facade no longer ports to red color of the Tiranty family who built the buildings in the Place Messena in Nice.
