Mon Repos villa was built as a summer residence for the British Lord High Commissioner of the United States of the Ionian Islands, Frederick Adam, and his second wife, Diamantina 'Nina' Palatino, in 1828–1831, although they had to vacate the villa soon afterwards in 1832 when Adam was sent to serve in India. The villa was rarely used as a residence for later British governors. In 1833, it housed a school of fine arts, while in 1834, the park was opened to the public. Empress Elisabeth of Austria stayed there in 1863. Here she fell in love with the island, where she later built the Achilleion Palace.
After the union with Greece in 1864, the villa was granted to King George I of the Hellenes as a summer residence; he renamed it 'Mon Repos' (French for 'My Rest'). The royal family used it as a summer residence up until King Constantine II fled the country in 1967. The villa subsequently became derelict, but was restored in the 1990s.
The villa was confiscated under controversial circumstances some years after the declaration of the Hellenic Republic in 1974. Its confiscation, and the confiscation of other property of the deposed and exiled King Constantine II, without any compensation, led to a court case in the European Court of Human Rights.
The King's argument centred on the claim that the property in question was acquired by his predecessors legally and was therefore subject to regular personal inheritance. The Greek state argued that because the property was either used by the royal family by virtue of its sovereign status or obtained by taking advantage of that status, once the monarchy was abolished, the property reverted to public ownership automatically.
References:Rosenborg Palace was built in the period 1606-34 as Christian IV’s summerhouse just outside the ramparts of Copenhagen. Christian IV was very fond of the palace and often stayed at the castle when he resided in Copenhagen, and it was here that he died in 1648. After his death, the palace passed to his son King Frederik III, who together with his queen, Sophie Amalie, carried out several types of modernisation.
The last king who used the place as a residence was Frederik IV, and around 1720, Rosenborg was abandoned in favor of Frederiksborg Palace.Through the 1700s, considerable art treasures were collected at Rosenborg Castle, among other things items from the estates of deceased royalty and from Christiansborg after the fire there in 1794.
Soon the idea of a museum arose, and that was realised in 1833, which is The Royal Danish Collection’s official year of establishment.