Villa Clorinda

Villa Clorinda is a peculiar architectural hybrid, a residential building that refuses to commit to a single style. Its asymmetrical plan, now flanked by two later additions, rises over two main floors with a belvedere tower perched above the modillioned cornice. The entrance is announced by a pronaos of four grey granite columns, leading to a door framed by semi-columns with Corinthian capitals and a low arch surmounted by a coat of arms.

What makes the villa remarkable is its lavish white stucco decoration, drawing from the Art Nouveau repertoire: lyres, floral motifs, and male and female heads cover the facades in a profusion of frames and false pilasters. The entrance windows are distinctly Liberty in style, with a large balcony door shaped like a zither. Yet on the left facade, a row of pointed mullioned windows appears, complete with trefoil arches, star and circular tracery, and slender colonnettes. The result is a curious but engaging marriage of Liberty and Neo-Gothic, a building that seems to have been designed by two different hands working in parallel.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.