Villa Šeherezada
The Villa Šeherezada is a former luxury private residence east of the old town of Dubrovnik and is now part of a hotel complex. The villa was built around 1930 and equipped with a Welte Philharmonic organ . The orientalizing white building with its characteristic blue dome is named after the Arab fairy tale character Scheherazade . The building was built for the American millionaire of Estonian-Jewish origin William D. Zimdin , who owned several hotels in the area of Semmering in Lower Austria in the 1930s . The now legendary villa is said to have served as the official guest house of the government under Tito and remained neglected for years towards the end of the Yugoslav period. Today the unusual, landmark building is again in private hands and has been used as a luxury property since a renovation in 2005 at the price of 6,600 euros per day.
The organ, already damaged by the neglect of the building, was brutally removed during the renovation of the house and given away to a church in Dubrovnik, where it was improperly stored. It is now under monument protection as a national cultural asset of Croatia. Their fate, however, is uncertain.
Web links
- Presentation of the villa with photos on the website of the hotel operator ( Memento from February 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 42 ° 38 ′ 24.5 ″ N , 18 ° 7 ′ 20.5 ″ E