Inside Villa Astor, vacation home to the richest family in the world
William Waldorf Astor’s villa, perched on a cliff in Sorrento has finally opened its doors
When William Waldorf Astor bought a villa on the cliffs of Sorrento in 1905, he was one of the wealthiest people on the planet. His great-grandfather had made a fortune parlaying a fur monopoly into a real estate empire, and subsequent Astor generations had managed to expand their portfolio to newspapers, import/export concerns, and real estate developments that included the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.
Astor’s purchase of the property for 110,210 lira wasn’t exactly a drain on his resources. At the time, he also was in possession of Cliveden House, a massive Palladian mansion in Buckinghamshire, England, purchased for US$1.25 million; 18 Carlton House Terrace, a 67,000-square-foot mansion overlooking St. James Park in London; and Hever Castle in Kent, which was originally built for the family of Anne Boleyn. Astor reportedly spent 10 million pounds—(about US$110 million today)—to renovate it.
The house in Sorrento, while not as grand as Astor’s other palaces, became something of a pet project. After renovating the house from 1905 to 1908, he set about acquiring surrounding parcels of land and cultivated a lush botanical garden. He also built a recreation of a Pompeiian villa on the edge of the grounds, which he subsequently filled with priceless antiquities.
Astor died in 1919, at which point the Italian government—not exactly a beacon of preservation advocacy at that point—declared that the antiquities and gardens were such an important part of the country’s patrimony that they had to remain untouched.
After passing from the Astor family to the Italian government, the house was purchased by shipping tycoon Mario Pane and his wife Rita in the 1970s. They held onto it for more than three decades, selling it in 2012.
The property’s new owner hired interior designer Jacques Garcia to restore and update the villa; following a several-years-long effort, they’ve memorialized the renovated interiors in the book Villa Astor: Paradise Restored on the Amalfi Coast (US$65).
No Expense Spared
The book contains a foreword by Lord Astor of Hever, William Waldorf Astor’s great-grandson, who gives background. There are essays devoted to the origins and education of “William Waldorf,” as the book refers to him, as well as his diplomatic career and publishing interests.