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This is also supported with the description of professor
Key about the inside of the building: ”my nest” was furnished during the
first years of 1690 and the furniture was modern, that is with an exotic
influence that French wars in Northern Africa had taken to Europe. The
villa had 2 large verandas over viewing the sea ; on one side there was a
group of wicker couches and armchairs, on the other side it was decorated
with a beautiful Japanese urn about 1 meter and half high, some embalmed
crocodiles and 2 bronze statues that Nobel himself had ordered from a Roman
antiquarian, bamboo pedestals for flower pots and wooden Japanese pictures
.
In a Chinese living room the exotic style continued. The
couch was made of ebony , with inlays of pearls and the walls were covered
of cloth embroidered in Chinese style. One ostrich egg , coffee cups made of
china from Sevres, Chinese vases and a light blue urn were part of the
ornaments. There was also a living room in the middle with walls covered
with yellow silk and a smalls couch Pompeian style. The walls were painted
with frescos and one could watch albums of pictures , for instance one
regarding Napoleon’s life .
Nobel’s bedroom had a bed carved in wood and his study
had a library with glass doors. In all rooms there was electric lighting.
The tower contained one sitting room for the most private meetings One
could enjoy oneself with a racing game and a roulette, while the dining room
was situated on the ground floor with the entrance directly from the park .
A large table under the 2 crystal electrical lamps and 12 chairs, 2
cupboards full of china sets and silver cutlery were waiting for the guests
.On the same floor were located the bath rooms and the kitchen.
Many buildings surrounded the villa: the little house
with 10 rooms, the stables and the laboratory, long construction of bricks
at the ground floor . Mr .Ragnar Sohlman who worked as a chemist in the
laboratory in Sanremo and became the executor of Nobel, describes the
laboratory :” It was composed of 3:rooms , a large engine room with a gas
engine and electro generators for the production of different types of
current at different voltage for the lighting and electrolytic tests, quite
a big working room used for chemical experiments and other experimental
works, a smaller room with a library, some scales and other instruments ,
guns for ballistic tests. The shots were pointed towards the sea along a
steel pier built on the sand. The chronograph for measuring their speed was
installed inside the laboratory”.
Mr Sohlman, the English chemist George Beckett and
young French Alphonse Tourneaud were working in the lab . The languages
spoken alternatively were French and English.
The intense activity carried out in the laboratory in
Sanremo soon annoyed the neighbours and complaints were made to the major
of the town especially by Mr Rossi a lawyer proprietor of the villa nearby.
Mr Rossi insisted so much that convinced Nobel to buy his
property with act dated 8 ay 1894, notaries deed Balestreri. From Mr Rossi’
wife, Mrs Rosa Cassini, Alfred Nobel bought Villa Miraflores, at the time
named “Villa Rossi”. When asked about the destination of the villa , Nobel
answered ” We can use it as a beach changing room”.
This testifies Nobel’s intention not to abandon Sanremo,
in spite of his buying the steelworks in Bofors and the mansion of
Björkborn and to spend there part of the year. Nobel signed a contract with
the firm Alavoine &C for the furnishing of the two villas in Sanremo; it
was then cancelled by the testamentary executors after Nobel’s death which
occurred before the delivery of the supply.
The texts of the
section” The story”, “Alfred Nobel”, and “Italian Nobel” are taken from the
books:
Giovanni Lotti,”Nobel in Sanremo”, Provincial Administration of Imperia
,1980
Giovanni and Antonella Lotti, “Nobel in Sanremo” Turin , Allemandi 2003.
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