Caribbean castle truly one-of-a-kind
Security, privacy assured at late contessa’s 10,000-sq.-ft. mountaintop playground
The contessa, it’s said, had an appetite for lavish parties, attractive young men and the finer things in life. So she found a mountain on an island in the Caribbean Sea and built a beautiful castle designed for those pursuits.
It’s hard to separate fact from gossip when it comes to the late Contessa Nadia de Navarro-Farber, who led “one of those wink-wink lifestyles,” according to Peter Briggs, broker for the property on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
One thing’s for sure: Nothing can rival the high-society host’s dazzling white abode in its magical setting.
“There’s not another site in the Caribbean that has the magnitude of size, including the beachfront, the setting on a mountaintop and the large land holding,” says Briggs, of John Foster Real Estate.
The Castle St. Croix comprises 41 hectares of fertile slopes, palm-lined beach and lush gardens that flank the circular road that leads to the top of the mountain. With approaching visitors visible from every angle of the castle, privacy and security are all but guaranteed.
“She was the great dame of St. Croix,” Briggs says of de NavarroFarber, who spent winters there hosting soirées that were “the talk of the town.”
Born in Bulgaria to a noble family, de Navarro-Farber enjoyed an early career as a musical comedy star in black-and-white films before moving to New York in the late 1940s, when she turned her attention to philanthropy. The thrice-married countess died three years ago, at age 98, leaving her widower, Yuri Farber, with a large home he has no use for.
Much of the two-storey castle’s space is dedicated to entertaining, says Briggs, whose brokerage has partnered with global marketing firm Christie’s International Real Esta e.
The “palatial” master bedroom extends through both floors, he says, while expansive terraces surround the exterior on different levels.
“The views are just outstanding; you can see both sides of the island,” Briggs says of the 360-degree panorama from the home’s lofty perch that overlooks the sea.
The turrets, arches and scalloped edges reveal the influence of Moorish and Eastern architecture of de Navarro-Farber’s homeland and travel destinations. The dramatic white colour palette of the outer walls is repeated inside, on the walls and furniture.
Briggs says de Navarro-Farber played an active role in the design and construction of the retreat, which was completed in 1989.
“She was on-site putting up walls and windows and supervising the design,” he says, noting it had been “quite a feat” to erect the great room’s huge flower-shaped column with flower petals spreading across the ceiling.
In the 1970s, the property had been home to a university marine lab, and the waterfront buildings and infrastructure are still there, waiting for a “Richard Branson-type entrepreneur” to repurpose, says Briggs.
With its well-fortified main residence, private location and surrounding mystique, the estate boasts a James Bond-type quality, he adds.
Surveying the blue sky and sea from the castle’s uppermost vantage point, “you feel in command of everything,” says Briggs. “It’s quite a powerful feeling, being in control of your domain.”
Just what the contessa intended, no doubt.