In 1854, Empress Eugénie de Montijo, wife of Napoleon III, commissioned a villa on the cliffs overlooking the Grande Plage. This villa — Villa Eugénie — permanently transformed Biarritz’s destiny.
From fishing village to imperial capital
Before Villa Eugénie, Biarritz was a village of whale fishermen and bathers of Spanish origin who came to sea-bathe on medical prescription. With the arrival of the imperial court, all European nobility followed: the Russian tsars, Queen Victoria, King Alfonso XII of Spain.
Villa Eugénie today
Villa Eugénie became the Hôtel du Palais in 1893. It is today Biarritz’s only palace hotel, with direct views of the ocean and the Grande Plage. The building has preserved its Second Empire architecture.
The legacy
Biarritz retains from this era its belle époque villas, its bathing establishments, its casino and its eclectic architecture blending the Basque style with the whims of 19th-century European aristocracy.