MAADI'S ECLECTIC VILLAS and their stories

One of Maadi's loveliest villas on Road 83 named after its last occupant Dr. Fathi Loza, the late director of Behman Hospital/Sanatorium in Helwan. It is now home to his widow Francine Behman and his son prominent psychiatrist Dr. Nasser Loza. The villa's original owner was leading Cairo dentist Dr. Isaac Gershon who hailed from Central Europe shortly after WW1.
The villa is sometimes nicknamed 'House of Spades' in view of the repetitive telltale motif, which adorn most of its shutters.
Architect: Max Perdikides

One of Maadi's earliest villas (1909) belonged to civil engineer Erwin Adolf de Camer from Mittle-Europa by way of Smyrna (Izmir). He lived there for three decades with his Italian musician wife Lucia Adamoli tending to their wonderful one-acre garden renown for its unique Bougainvillaes . Following Erwin de Cramer's death in Alexandria on 13 May 1944 it was a matter of time before the villa was sold. Purchased circa 1946 by Turco-Egyptian agricultural engineer Nihad A Kholoussy, he lived therein with his German wife. The last occupant of the villa was Nihad's second wife and widow Souza Fawzi and her lovely daughter Sanya H El Aroussi. Villa architect: Ariston St. John Diamant.

Swiss Embassy residence "Villa Emil Klauser" corner of Roads 84 and 13 designed by Marc Acatos using the flat slab technique for account of a senior director of the Portland Cement Company in Torah. Sold to the Swiss Embassy in the 1960s it became the residence of reference for all subsequent Swiss ambassadors starting with Daniel Gagnepain.

Villa Dr. Alaa El Zayatt on Road 84. The original villa belonged to a member of the Mahmoud Sidky Pasha family whose relation, minister of public works Ibrahim Karim Pasha, lived next door his villa occupying the triangle fronting roads Mustafa Kamel, 84 and 15 and which is today totally abandoned.

Villa Raafat on Road 84 designed by architect Yehya Mustafa in 1949 saw turbulent days when leading jurist Dr Wahid Raafat was placed under house arrest for persistently contradicting Gamal Abdel Nasser on a constitutional and foreign policy issue. Hence, for the duration of 1957, Villa Raafat was guarded by Nasser's police with access by permission only.

Villa Emanuel Mizrahi Pasha on ex-Mosseri Square belonged to history's last Jewish pasha. In the early 1960s, in order to save it from a government takeover, the pasha's daughter leased it to the Mexican government. The first Mexican ambassador to live there was Jorge Castaneda who was subsequently his country's foreign minister and noted jurist.

Sidley Manor on Road 13 built for leading British accountant John Sidley in the late 1920s would later be sold to press baron Emil George Zaidan and his wife Rose. In the 1990s it became the South African Embassy residence before its most recent owner, an MP and contractor, pulled it down in 2009-10 replacing it with a new-rich marble folly.

One of Maadi's earliest villa named after its first occupant Richard Altmann who hailed from Central Europe. Importing pumps from Germany he converted to Islam and formed an Egyptian family after separating amicably from his first wife Fanny Lifschitz whose father Paul Lifschitz owned a dozen or more properties in Maadi. Fanny's paternal aunt Elizabeth "Lotte" Altmann was Stefan Zweig's second wife and his partner in suicide in Petropolis, Brazil on 23 February 1942. As liberal Jews they felt the world had turned on its head and decided they no longer wanted to be part of it.
Fanny and Richard Altmann are buried in the interdenominational German Cemetery near Malek al-Saleh underpass, Old Cairo.

articles posted on egy.com were published in the following books by Samir W Raafat: THE EGYPTIAN BOURSE, Zeitouna, Cairo -- CAIRO THE GLORY YEARS, Harpocrates, Alexandria -- HISTORY & SOCIETY IN A CAIRO SUBURB; MAADI 1904-1962, Palm Press, Cairo -- PRIVILEGED FOR THREE CENTURIES, printed digitally and bound by Elias Printing, Egypt