Castel Sainte-Claire

The Castel Sainte-Claire is a villa in the hills above Hyères, in the Var Département of France, which was the residence of Olivier Voutier, a French officer who brought the Venus de Milo to France in 1820, and later of the American novelist Edith Wharton.

The walls were destroyed by the order of Cardinal Richelieu during the reign of Louis XIII of France.

In the 17th century, the site was occupied by a convent belonging to the order of the Institute of Poor Women, created in Assisi in 1212, of which Sainte-Claire was the first Mother Superior.

In 1820, the land was sold to the French naval officer and archeologist Olivier Voutier, best known as the man who brought the Venus de Milo from Greece to France.

She called it "Sainte-Claire du Château" and created the garden in its present form, filling it with cacti and sub-tropical plants.