The Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc is the most legendary hotel on the French Riviera and an enduring symbol of Mediterranean glamour. Originally conceived in 1869 by Hippolyte de Villemessant, founder of Le Figaro newspaper, as Villa Soleil — a retreat for writers seeking inspiration — the property opened in 1870. Italian hotelier Antoine Sella purchased it in 1887 and reopened it as the Grand Hotel du Cap in 1889, establishing its reputation as a destination for the European elite.
The hotel's transformation into a summer destination is largely thanks to Gerald and Sara Murphy, a young American couple who rented the hotel for an entire summer in the 1920s, at a time when the Riviera was strictly a winter resort. Their circle of friends including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Ernest Hemingway turned the Cap into the epicenter of Jazz Age social life. Fitzgerald immortalized the hotel as the 'Hotel des Etrangers' in his novel Tender Is the Night. The iconic Eden Roc pavilion, perched on the rocks with its seawater pool, was added in 1914.
In 1969, the hotel was acquired by Rudolph August Oetker, and it remains part of the Oetker Collection today. Nestled within 22 acres of fragrant pine gardens at the tip of Cap d'Antibes, the Napoleon III chateau continues to host film stars, heads of state, and cultural icons, particularly during the Cannes Film Festival each May.