Villa Merian
The Villa Merian with its English garden is located on the high plateau of the Merian Park in the Brüglinger Ebene recreation area in Münchenstein near Basel . Today it is the Café Merian .
history
In 1711 the manor house above the pond was built in the style of an old baroque country castle on behalf of Alexander Löffler. The two-storey building was covered by a hipped roof and there was a courtyard in front of the north facade and a tree garden in the south. On the west side were a toilet tower and a gardener's house. A polygonal stair tower was built on the back .
In 1801 the house was rebuilt in the style of early classicism . The staircase and toilet tower were removed. The stairs were moved inside the house. A garden hall with an arbor above was built at the rear. A pillar portico was placed in front of the entrance and an attic floor was drawn in and placed over the old roof structure. About ten years later the property was acquired by Christoph Merian-Hoffmann and in 1824 his son Christoph Merian received the Brüglingen estate as a wedding present. The Villa Merian was used as a summer residence.
In the Unteren Brüglingen there is an assembly with a mill from the 15th century, on the other side of the pond there is a tenant house from the 16th century and a gardener's house (1824).
In 1837 the architect Melchior Berri built a tenant house and an economic building north of the manor house, in Vorder-Brüglingen , on behalf of Christoph Merian . The high plateau offered ideal terrain for the English gardens. The park landscape, which extends into the New World , begins on the southern garden front of Villa Merian .
In the years 1858/59, Christoph Merian had the villa rebuilt in the style of the Second Empire. The Basel architect Johann Jakob Stehlin the Younger was commissioned to renovate the villa. The new building proposed by the architect was discarded and one was limited to a renovation. The old core of the wall was covered with plaster, stucco and cast iron. The ground floor was clad with imitation cuboids and the windows on the upper floor were provided with acroteria . Cornice strips divided the floors and flat pilaster strips bordered the corners. Instead of the recessed attic storey, an attic flush with the facade with a flat hipped roof was created. A bell tower in the neo-coco style was built on the ridge. The portico in front of the entrance was replaced by a two-storey, cast-iron pavilion, which serves as a canopy and a balcony. At the back, facing the garden, instead of the arbor, a three-axis cast-iron middle section with an open hall, which has been clad with artificial marble, was built. A new, more elegant staircase with ornate cast iron bars was created inside, but the room layout remained almost unchanged.
Christoph Merian died in 1858 during the renovation, but the villa was still used as a summer residence by the widow Margaretha Merian-Burckhardt. After her death on May 3, 1886, the Christoph Merian Foundation became legally binding and took over Brüglingen and the five leasehold farms (Singerhof, St. Jakob, Ziegelhütte, Unter- and Vorder-Brüglingen).
In 1889, a convalescence ward of the Basel Citizens' Hospital moved into the villa and it became a rest home for convalescent women.
present
In 1967 the decision was made to make the villa and the associated Merian Park available to the city of Basel (free of charge for a period of 100 years) for the creation of a botanical garden.
In 1980 the Grün 80 , the 2nd Swiss exhibition for gardening and landscaping, took place in the Brüglingen area . The remains of the former facility now serve as a popular local recreation area. The Brüglingen Botanical Garden is located here in the newly designed Merian Park . The 135,000 m 2 garden is a habitat for plants and houses a large botanical collections and medicinal plant garden. The area also offers playgrounds for children and a relaxation room for adults. At the St. Alban-Teich there is a late Gothic mill, now set up as the Brüglingen Mill Museum , and on the hill is the stables, which from 1981 to 2016 housed an important collection of carriages and sleighs from the Basel Historical Museum . The stately barn burned down in 1905 and was rebuilt in 1906.
With a view to the "Grün 80", the Merian café was expanded in 1977 and 1978. Since then it has been rebuilt and renovated again. The cast-iron verandas on both sides of the villa were removed, but great importance was attached to the restoration of the remaining cast-iron components and the interior fittings. Various demolition work was carried out in the basement in order to install new toilet facilities in the café. In addition, the previously unused vaulted cellar was given a new spatial quality, which enables various uses. The painted and stuccoed ceilings with gilded decorations, the painted boiseries , the ceiling and overhang medallions and the parquet floors were completely restored.
The previously dismantled (but still existing) classicist tower stove was put back in the salon. In the entrance hall as well as in the garden hall and on the unchanged first floor, the floor as well as the wall and ceiling surfaces were repaired. In the attic, the existing walls and fixtures were demolished and expanded, the roof was completely re-insulated and the roof windows replaced. Three seminar rooms were set up on the top floor. These rooms are separated from each other by a central zone. A toilet facility, a cloakroom and a small storage room were set up in this zone.
literature
- Hans Rudolf Heyer: Brüglingen (Swiss art guide). Bern 1977.
- Rudolf Suter : The Christoph Merian Foundation. Basel 1986.
- Gustaf Adolf Wanner : Christoph Merian. Basel 1958.
Web links
- Brüglingen: The Merian Villa , art guide Brüglingen
Individual evidence
- ^ Art guide Brüglingen: The Merian Villa
Coordinates: 47 ° 32 ′ 15 " N , 7 ° 36 ′ 52" E ; CH1903: 613238 / 265212