It All Begins with an Heiress – Who Was Hélène Pastor?
Port Hercule, in Monaco, where Hélène Pastor owned thousands of luxury apartments. (Photo by John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Hélène Pastor was the granddaughter of Jean-Baptiste Pastor, an Italian stonemason who arrived in Monaco in 1880. The entrepreneur managed several large real-estate projects and public worksites in Monaco that made him rich quickly. His son, Gildo Pastor, continued his path and developed the family’s real-estate after World War II. In fact, throughout the years the family’s real estate business grew so much that they currently own 15 percent of the total housing stock in Monaco.
She grew up in Monaco and went on to become the owner of real estate company Hélène Pastor Pallanca SAM. Some of the buildings she owned in Monaco included the Emilie Palace, Le Bahia, the Trocadero, Le Schuylkill, and Continental apartment building, as well as the Gildo Pastor Center. Her worth at the time of her death was US$ 3.7 billion, making her the wealthiest woman in Monaco, where she was known as “La Vice Princesse” – The Vice Princess. She had two children from her two marriages Sylvia Pastor, born in 1961, and Gildo Pallanca Pastor, born in 1967.
Where all that wealth came from?