A 678-Square-Foot Art Nouveau Gem Sparkles in Paris

In Paris’s 16th arrondissement, the Castel Béranger is a unique landmark, the first Art Nouveau apartment building in France’s capital. It was completed in 1898 by Hector Guimard, and the building’s boldly asymmetrical design, the recessed openings on its façade, its bow windows, and its ingenious combinations of materials, colors, and shapes propelled the young designer to early fame. The interiors are stunning as well, with ornate ironwork and stained-glass windows, and even the smallest details and decorative arabesques are the result of a carefully calculated design that never loses sight of the importance of creating a building that is beautiful but also functional.

“I was already living in Paris and I was looking for a bigger apartment,” confides Octavian Popa, the owner of a unit in the building. “I wasn’t looking for a place with so much character, and I didn’t know the Castel Béranger. I was just following up on an ad I’d seen. Of course, I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it, and I still love it!” As he talks about the building, Popa, who is enthusiastic about his love for Paris, describes the building as a little museum of Art Nouveau that you wouldn’t expect to find in such a typically Haussmannian neighborhood. The well-preserved gem never fails to amaze visitors with original details like its elevator, stained-glass windows, and parquet flooring.

The small 1950s Italian bookcase with a built-in desk fits perfectly into the compact living room (Paul Bert Serpette). On its shelves, on the left, a head of a young man, from the first to second century CE, previously owned by designer Kenzo Takada, and, to its right, the top of a hermaic pillar depicting Dionysus, also from the first to second century CE (both from Galerie Chenel). Below, a late 18th-century Orthodox icon from the Saidnaya convent in Syria.