Villa Cassalette

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Villa Cassalette (1901), today the Suermondt Ludwig Museum

The Villa Cassalette is a former residential building in Aachen , Wilhelmstrasse 18, which was built from 1883–1888 as a city ​​palace in the historicist style of Neumanierism based on a design by the Aachen architect Eduard Linse . The building now houses the Suermondt Ludwig Museum and is a listed building .

History and architecture

Libreria by Jacopo Sansovino , template for the Villa Cassalette

The builder of the Villa Cassalette was Eduard Cassalette, a grandson of the founder of the Aachen scratching factory Cassalette , Peter Joseph Cassalette. Eduard Cassalette wanted a contemporary city palace, the design of which, based on models of the Italian Renaissance in the style of Wilhelminian Newmanism, should offer a monumental appearance. In 1883, Eduard Linse began planning this prestigious building on behalf of Cassalette , the three-storey, five-axis street front made of sandstone measures 25 m. The foundation stone was laid one year later and the company moved in four years later. The building used as a private residence was designed by Linse as a total work of art in architecture and interior design, as an Ars Una .

The interiors should on the one hand be comfortably inviting and on the other hand suitable for the management and reception of larger groups. Eduard Cassalette agreed to the plan - and façade - design of the lens to a large extent. When designing the street view, Linse chose palace buildings from Venice as a model, especially the outer front of the Biblioteca Marciana by Jacopo Sansovino , but also the Palazzo Corner della Ca 'grande (with a rustic zone, three storeys, balustrades and doubling of the front columns) from 1545 and the Ca 'Rezzonico from 1667. The heavily embossed ground floor is made of upholstered ashlar. The rustic floor is followed by the piano nobile with Ionic capitals and the second floor with Corinthian capitals . "On the upper floors, six high pairs of columns each frame the five windows with column arrangements". This architectural play of forms also comes from the Markus library and the colossal order .

However, Linse placed two pillars at the front, thus canceling out the lightness of the Venetian building with a front pillar. Lens converted the lateral end pillars into pilaster-like pillars. The shafts of the front pillars are smooth, those of the window pillars in Roman fluting , the lower part of the pillar shaft is enriched with pipes . This divides the pillar front horizontally against the emphasis on the vertical by the pillar and underlines the neo-Romanian style as well as the triglyph metope frieze in the lower and not in the upper area as the end of the ground floor. The metopes adorn rosette ornaments. Between the windows, the facade is provided with ornamental reliefs in high rectangles. The individual windows are designed like a triumphal arch with coffered arches. The Great Through Venetian gallery is reduced to a three windows comprehensive on consoles set balconies and balustrades . Linses work is a horror vacui , every part is completely designed. Under the balcony there are u. a. Shell motifs as decorative elements.

All of this gives the building an overall Nordic impression of heaviness. Festons , putti, the sculptures leaning against the arches of the windows and the Keilstein heads are the decorative elements derived from the Libreria. The ground floor arches are adorned with wedge heads. Of the five heads on the ground floor, the head above the entrance represents Hercules, recognizable by his lion head hat. In the center, Hermes is shown with his winged helmet, flanked by a female head with a laurel and one with a crown, the last one seems to be a bearded head crowned with a laurel. The window arches on the piano nobile are flanked by sculptures based on Michelangelo's times of day in the Medici graves, which lean on the side of the arches of the windows in various positions. The attributes of the ten adolescent sculptures are palm fronds, swords, crossbows, spinning bobbins, a back sculpture, flute, drawing board, book, rope with spade and, last on the right, a blacksmith with hammer and anvil. The representations of Linsen’s preliminary drawing are partly designed with wings varying. The adolescent with a spinning bobbin refers to the occupation of the landlord and the Aachen textile industry.

The window arches on the second floor are decorated with floral ornaments (laurel and oak branches, etc.), the foliage. On the entablature , festons connected with banding are carried by 21 putti . They are shown alternately individually, in groups of three and two at the corners in the most varied of poses in lively movement, standing and walking with the heavy fruit pendants between them and surrounded by fluttering ribbons. In a perfect division, Linse has placed a putti above the window frames and a group of three above the double columns. The mezzanine is located behind the entablature . The mezzanine was equipped with windows facing the garden. The garden front of this villa with park was kept simple compared to the street view. The attic was designed like a balustrade in keeping with the times. At the request of Cassalette, a mansard roof was added as the upper end. Probably a reminiscence of his parents 'house or his grandparents' house Cassalette, built by Johann Joseph Couven , at Peterstrasse 44/46, at the corner of Kurhausstrasse. Linses execution shows a roof ridge with lateral lion heads as a crown. Its connection to Venice is evident in the numerous depictions of lions. The cross-cap vaulted ceiling of the gate entrance was structured by columns and belt arches.

Construction work

Unfavorable subsoil and groundwater conditions in the area of ​​the deeply weathered Upper Devonian Condroz sandstones made the start of the construction work difficult. A composite of inverted vaults under the foundation walls prevented the building from settling unevenly. The plot has a rectangular basic shape, but with a diagonal slope on the back.

Eduard Linse carried out the Villa Cassalette with the following people and companies:

inner space

Staircase (state 1900)
Big salon

Around 350 m² of living space was available per floor. The foyer is similar to an antique atrium and vaulted with glass. The rich interior design included classic Mannerist furnishings such as a silver cupboard on the ground floor, a sideboard on the second floor, corresponding wall decorations such as gold wallpaper and equivalent ceiling decorations. The ground floor consisted of the side carriage entrance , a loan from the Cologne Ringstrasse Palais - a passage in which the entrance door is on the right, to which a staircase leads - a vestibule - the address room (formerly the office of the museum director Prof. (hc ) Dr. phil. Ernst Günther Grimme ; now part of the library) - the reception room (library reception. Even in these preserved rooms a horror vacui dominates the interior decoration.) - the living room (library, reading room) - a cloakroom (copier, etc.) - a passenger elevator - the atrium - the dining room - the terrace - a dressing room - the kitchen - a servants 'room (cloakroom) and the dining elevator in the servants' room. From the ground floor the terrace led out into the lens of the typically asymmetrical garden landscape with a circular path. A fountain was part of the garden art . In the acute angle of the rear left corner, lens placed an octagon, presumably an octagonal pedestal for outdoor performances in accordance with contemporary garden iconography.

The first floor and the second floor included a vestibule - the master room - the small salon - the large salon (the ceiling decorations of the latter three have been preserved, the partition walls are removed to a street-side hall) - the orchestra room - the ballroom (formerly Lecture room; now painting collection) - the winter garden with a grotto as a typical reminiscence of Richard Wagner and the Nibelungen grotto (Lower Rhine painting and sculpture from the 15th and 16th centuries, the skylight gives an idea of ​​the former winter garden) - the master bedroom (German and Dutch painting of the 15th century) - an anteroom - the atrium - a cloakroom - the passenger elevator - the dining elevator - II .: four bedrooms - a guest room - the bathroom - the children's room and an ironing room.

museum

Suermondt Ludwig Museum, third extension building on the left (1986–1994)

Apart from minor changes inside, the lens building was expanded before the museum moved in 1900–1901 with a rear, two-storey, five-axis building section including skylight halls designed by city architect Joseph Laurent . A U-shaped second extension building around the rear stairwell with three side-light rooms on the ground floor and five skylight rooms on the upper floor was planned since 1907 and was carried out around 1930. The neighboring property of 11 m by 90 m size was for a competition in 1986 by the architectural firm Busmann + Haberer built with a third extension, which opened in 1994, the roof structure is interpreted as reminiscent of a sailing ship, and in the style of late modernism was designed . The rear, pointed corner of the property was designed in 1994 in the form of several spatial and cross-building shapes. The top edge of the roof juts out into today's Martin-Luther-Straße (15-17). In this way, the corner of the property from 1883 is present in various forms. In the flat diagonal counter-move, Busmann + Haberer placed a counterpart on the facade with a side corner window on the “mast” of this “sail,” which forms the center of a rectangular double spiral entrance. This is on the floor. The pattern runs across the sidewalk to the middle of the street. The spirals start at the stele. One takes her way through the entrance to the cafeteria; the other leads to the middle of the street and ends in the middle in front of the old building. The entire new building complex is very spacious in the most varied of variants. The museum visit starts in front of the museum. The architecture is the first work of art that the visitor can look at. The "mast" and the spiral come from the sculptor Norbert Müller-Everling . It is a stainless steel stele 12 m high. It supports the sail, which is formed on the second floor by an outwardly concave wall, which protrudes far beyond the facade at an acute angle with a glass wall. This architectural element became the landmark of the museum. Called a vestibule by the architects . The fragility of its cubic structural elements creates a harmonious contrast to the massive, neo-manian lens work.

If the art in the villa is integrated into the existing rooms, Busmann + Haberer were able to adapt their rooms to the works of art. Colors, lighting conditions and room sizes were designed for the exhibits under art historical and color psychological aspects.

The original room layout can be seen in the foyer and library area of ​​today's museum building. The left rear of the lens building is undeveloped, as is the first part of the garden area in front of it, the sculpture garden. The portrait of Barthold Suermondt by Ludwig Knaus welcomes the visitor in the vestibule .

List of monuments

In 1977 the building was entered in the register of monuments by the Rhineland State Conservator as:

“House Cassalette, now Suermondtmuseum
1892 (E. Linse);
3-storey, 5-axis palazzo in the style of the Venetian Renaissance, ashlar facade with attic ; Entrance in the gate on the left, 2 rooms on the ground floor "

literature

  • Eduard Linse: From my practice. Collection of completed buildings by Eduard Linse, architect. Volume I: A house in Aachen. Self-published, Aachen 1892.
  • Anton Kisa: The municipal Suermondt Museum. In: Festschrift for the 72nd Assembly of German Naturalists and Doctors, Julius Springer, Berlin, 1900, pp. 225-231
  • Peter Johannes Droste , Michael Käding (ed.): Made in Aachen. Contributions to the regional technical, economic and social history. Aachen 2000, pp. 35-39. (out of print, available online as a PDF document with approx. 4.15 MB )
  • Albrecht Mann : Our Aachen today. Aachen's architecture in the style change of the 20th century. Helios, Aachen 1998, ISBN 3-925087-80-X .

Web links

Commons : Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of monuments Aachen (PDF; 53 kB)
  2. ↑ Reinhard Dauber : Aachen villa architecture. The villa as a building task in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Aurel Bongers, Recklinghausen 1985, ISBN 3-7647-0371-7 .
  3. ↑ Mann, p. 12.
  4. ↑ Buchkremer particularly emphasizes the wrought-iron balcony grille of this two-story house. - Joseph Buchkremer : The architects Johann Joseph Couven and Jakob Couven . In: Zeitschrift des Aachener Geschichtsverein , Volume 17 (1895), p. 131, p. 194, No. 47.
    This building is attributed to Couven by Buchkremer. It was expanded to ten axes in the 19th century. - Paul Schoenen: Johann Joseph Couven. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 96, plate 66.
  5. ^ Peter Johannes Droste, Michael Käding: Made in Aachen. Contributions to the regional technical, economic and social history. Aachen 2000, p. 37. (see literature)
  6. ^ Address book Aachen 1887.
  7. ^ Actien-Gesellschaft Mechanische Bautischlerei und Holzgeschäft in Oeynhausen , Anzeiger zum Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung , August 16, 1882, p. 2, accessed on December 13, 2012
  8. ↑ The marble factory founded by Peter Kessel in 1861 was located in 1891 at Adalbertstraße 46 with three workshops in Reihstraße 20, 59 and 61. - Ingeborg Schild , Elisabeth Jansen: The Aachener Ostfriedhof. Mayer, Aachen 1991, pp. 141ff.
  9. ↑ Linses stained glass are no longer preserved.
  10. ↑ Building history of the Suermondt-Ludwig Museum ( Memento of the original from May 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . The Ringstrasse was planned by Joseph Stübben in 1881, previously he was active in Aachen as the successor to Friedrich Joseph Ark . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.suermondt-ludwig-museum.de
  11. ↑ In brackets the interim and current uses of the respective rooms are listed.
  12. ↑ Fig. In: Ernst Günther Grimme : The Suermondt Museum. In: Aachener Kunstblätter , Volume 28 (1963), p. 9.
  13. ↑ State Conservator Rhineland (Ed.): List of monuments, 1.1 Aachen city center with Frankenberg quarter. Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1977, p. 178.

Coordinates: 50 ° 46 '24.3 "  N , 6 ° 5' 44.3"  E