The villa was built in 1906 by Eli Modiano as a summer residence for his father, the banker Yako Modiano. In 1913, a year after the liberation of Thessaloniki from the Turks and its incorporation to the Greek state, the house was bought by the municipality of Thessaloniki in order to be given to King Constantine as his royal mansion. After WWI and until the outbreak of WWII, it became the residence of the Governor of Macedonia. After the liberation in 1945, it housed the Military Medical School and until now the Folklore and Ethnological Museum of Macedonia and Thrace. The arched porticoes of the villa are designed according to Art Nouveau principles which Eli Modiano studied during his time in Paris.