Jacques Garcia: A Sicilian Dream: Villa Elena

In southeast Sicily, near the town of Noto, Villa Elena — a former monastery restored by Jacques Garcia — is a tranquil oasis among fragrant orchards. Reflecting the interior designer’s passion for ancient civilizations, the domain blends classical, Arabian, and Norman influences with elements borrowed from the Renaissance and the baroque, mirroring Sicilian history. With views stretching to the sea and to Syracuse, the villa is surrounded by shady terraces and lush gardens. This home — evocative of Lampedusa’s The Leopard — has been restored to its former glory through magnificent salons decked with marble, stucco work, majolica tiles, silk, and velvet, revealed here for the first time. Bruno Ehrs’s photographs, taken throughout each season of the year, masterfully capture the decadent splendor and aristocratic lifestyle of this particularly sumptuous locale in Sicily.

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Celebrated interior designer Jacques Garcia invites readers for the first time inside his private residence in Sicily. The former monastery, rebuilt in Noto's characteristic golden limestone, boasts spectacular salons that have been restored with a profusion of noble materials and techniques: colored marbles, flamboyant stucco work, majolica tiles, damask silks, and velvets. Time stops in the elegant music room decorated with embroidered silks and rococo-style mirrors that reflect the decor to infinity; the gilded dining room is hung with silk damask wall coverings, an eighteenth-century Murano chandelier, and furnished with Chantilly porcelain and antique Italian rococo chairs. The grand marble salon features baroque paintings and a stunning collection of sculpture and Sicilian furniture.

The exquisite villa — surrounded by shaded terraces planted with towering cacti, succulents, and colorful birds of paradise — attests to Garcia's love of ancient civilizations, and his masterful blending of Arab, Norman, Renaissance, and Baroque influences that converge in Sicily's colorful history. The domain, dotted with ancient sculptures and reflecting pools, is graced with splendid panoramic views revealing the sea near Syracuse, a distant folly, a restored villa nestled in an ancient olive grove, and the decaying grandeur of a classical temple reconstructed with ancient fragments.