Villa Leuchtenberg

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Villa Leuchtenberg in Lindau; Lithograph around 1855 by Bollmann based on drawings by the architect Anton Harrer
Villa Leuchtenberg in Lindau; Lithograph around 1860 by Julius Greth

The Villa Leuchtenberg is a mansion with a park on the shores of Lake Constance of today Lindauer district Reutin .

history

Summer villa of the Princess von Leuchtenberg

Since the late Middle Ages, pastures and several brickworks had developed along the old road to Bregenz, which used the existing clay deposits and gave the area the name Brick House. In addition to an inn, there was a customs building for the border crossing to Austria right on the street.

Théodelinde de Beauharnais (1814–1857) - with the title Princess von Leuchtenberg - the daughter of Eugène de Beauharnais (1781–1824), the stepson of Napoléon I , lived after her marriage in 1841 with Duke Wilhelm von Urach (1810–1869) , the later Count Wilhelm von Württemberg as Countess von Württemberg in Stuttgart. She had already enjoyed spending time in Italy with her mother in her youth in order to cure herself from an early lung disease (possibly tuberculosis ) in the southern climate, and was now looking for a place to rest and relax in the mild climate of the nearby Lake Constance.

In 1853 she acquired the so-called Haugsche Gut consisting of a customs house , several outbuildings and the property and had the customs house converted into a summer villa under the supervision of the Munich architect Anton Harrer from 1853 to 1855 in the so-called "Maximilian style". After the outbuildings were demolished, a spacious garden with a private harbor was created between the street and Lake Constance. P. 139, 140 Théodelinde's aunt Hortense de Beauharnais had acquired the Arenenberg Castle on the western bank of Switzerland in 1817 and her brother Eugène de Beauharnais had the Eugensberg Castle built. With the Villa Leuchtenberg, Théodelinde now had a counterpart on the German shore of Lake Constance.

Residence and summer residence of Cosmus Schindler

In 1886 the daughter of the builder, who died early, sold the residence to the Kennelbach textile manufacturer Samuel Wilhelm Schindler, who gave it to his son Cosmus Schindler . He had the outbuildings built on the other side of the loading street and equipped the villa with central heating. His brother Friedrich Wilhelm Schindler , who made a name for himself as an “electrical pioneer” in Vorarlberg, built an electricity supply into the villa as the first building in southern Germany. The historical facade paintings and the winter garden also date from this period. The electricity came from the Schindler power station in Bregenz-Rieden to Lindau via an overhead line .

Decay and restoration

Cosmus Schindler's descendants only used the villa as a holiday home in the summer and maintaining it became increasingly difficult among the community of heirs. In 1973 the city of Lindau had a riverside path built right through the property in front of the villa. In 1991 and again in 1995 there was a fire in the now uninhabited villa and further damage was caused by the extinguishing water.

After the buildings had been vacant for over 30 years, they were renovated from 2005 to 2008 and have been used as living and office space ever since.

literature

  • Lucrezia Hartmann: The Villa Leuchtenberg in Lindau. On the history of the house and its inhabitants. In: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 128th year 2010, pp. 139–168. ( Digitized version )
  • Markus Traub, Christoph Hölz ​​(ed.): Wide views - country houses and gardens on the Bavarian shores of Lake Constance . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin / Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-422-06800-1 . (Names Eduard Rüber & Anton Harrer as architects.)

Web links

Commons : Villa Leuchtenberg (Lindau)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see literature Lucrezia Hartmann: The Villa Leuchtenberg in Lindau. On the history of the house and its inhabitants .
  2. ↑ see weblink meeting point Zech: Villa Leuchtenberg. The refuge of Napoléon's step-granddaughter has recently been restored.
  3. ↑ see web link Christoph Hölz: Greenhouses and orangeries in the villas on Lindau Lake Constance.


Coordinates: 47 ° 32 ′ 42.3 "  N , 9 ° 43 ′ 22.3"  E