Want to eek out your summer break a little longer next year? We’ve trawled the continent to find holiday homes for sale in Europe with architecture as dramatic as the views.
Our picks range from a Girona masia restored with a contemporary touch, to a Minimalist bolthole in St Tropez by John Pawson. The best thing about them? You’ll never have to hand back the keys at the end of your stay.
A restored masia in Girona
€2.9m via Lucas Fox
6 bedrooms
Architect Gloria Duran rescued this 729 sq m masia in Girona’s Baix Empordà from ruin, turning it into a sprawling six-bedroom home set over two levels. Mas Moscat was built in 1850 and many of its original features have been restored, including stone walls, tiles, and vaulted Catalan ceilings. The show stopper is the Girona holiday home’s double-height living room, which has a floating stove and exposed rafters.
Mas Moscat sits within the hilltop medieval village of Pals and has unobstructed views over the Baix Emporda landscape, just a few kilometres from the Costa Brava.
Noble digs in Uzès, Languedoc
€5.9 via Sotheby’s International Realty
10 bedrooms
History buffs will be charmed by this medieval château, which was once owned by the King of France. Louis VII sold St Maximin castle in 1156, and it was later bought by Jean Racine’s uncle. (The playwright remembered walking through the garrigues up to the house in his writings.)
Much of French family life centres around the dinner table and the 10-bedroom property doesn’t disappoint – its vast vaulted dining room can seat over 20 people.
St Maximin castle comes with a heated courtyard swimming pool, rooftop terrace and hot tub with views of the surrounding valley. Other perks include a cinema room, gym, sauna and a separate guest apartment which could be rented out in its own right.
A Perugian farmhouse with infinity pool
€2.3m via Abode Italy
5 bedrooms
Old and new are combined in this 4,327 sq ft Italian holiday home, for sale in Perugia. Dating back to 1716, the dilapidated farmhouse – which is close to the town of Panicale and Lake Trasimeno – was restored in 2012, and its interiors are marked by clean lines, a crisp colour palette and rugged wooden beams which have been left exposed across the property.
Casale Boschetto is on the market via Abode Italy, and comes with four hectares of land planted with olive groves. It also has a separate one-bedroom guest cottage, and an infinity pool with views of the Umbrian landscape.
Beachside Minimalism in St Tropez
POA via Sotheby’s International Realty
5 bedrooms
John Pawson designed this pair of Minimalist holiday villas in St Tropez as a beachside estate with perfect symmetry. He put a contemporary spin on the local architectural vernacular, using a simple palette of stone and wood inside the two abodes, which sit on a plot of 18,820 sq m. Sight lines across the villas have been cleverly choreographed to make the most of the dwellings’ landscaped setting.
The French holiday homes are for sale via Sotheby’s International Realty and are a stone’s throw from a private beach.
A bucolic bolthole in Comporta
€2m via Portugal Sotheby’s International Realty
4 bedrooms
Modernity meets nature at this glass-fronted house in the heart of rural Portugal. Architect Pedro Ferreira Pinto designed the 367 sq m house, which sits on stilts and is spread over two floors around a striking double-vaulted living room.
The Comporta holiday villa also comes with a 50 sq m tiny home, conceived as a ‘bolthole within a bolthole’… The studio-style hideaway is ideal for couples seeking a bit more privacy.
Just an hour south of Lisbon, 3 Bicas villa is well located for city break overspill and was listed as one of Condé Nast Traveller’s best villas in Comporta. There’s plenty of room to expand too: the 5,000 sq m site is flexible enough to take another residence, small hotel or a mix of the two for those seeking a savvy investment.
A revived Ibizan finca
€5m via Savills
6 bedrooms
Belgian developer-owner Francisco Dimmers enlisted architect Amélia Molina to turn a crumbling farmhouse near Ibiza’s Santa Eulalia into a contemporary six-bedroom holiday home, for sale via Savills. The finca’s original structure was stripped bare, before its stone walls and wooden beamed ceilings were rebuilt using traditional techniques.
Molina converted Finca San Carlos’ barns and outhouses into bedrooms, adding skylights and floor-to-ceiling windows across the Ibizan holiday home to flood its interiors with light.
