Villa Orotava
The Villa Orotava (once also Villa Denkendorf ) is a listed villa in the Heidelberg district of Handschuhsheim . In 1902 it was the scene of an important meeting between the Russian composers Rimsky-Korsakov and Stravinsky .
description
The Villa Orotava is a two-story building at Handschuhsheimer Landstrasse 72. The west facade facing the street is divided into four axes by the windows of the upper floor. The two outer axes are also structured by pilasters , while the two middle axes on the ground floor frame the portal, which is covered by a balcony on the upper floor that extends over the two central axes.
history
On the property in the south of Handschuhsheim, which at that time was still used as a garden, a one-story house with a knee floor and vaulted cellar was built. Joseph de Nesle of Philadelphia bought the property in 1882, but soon sold it to a Miss Hallan of Tiverton. Heinrich Freyer bought it in 1886 and sold it to Heinrich Denkendorf in 1889. He had the house converted to its present form according to plans by the architect H. Hirsch. In the building plans, the villa is named after the owner Villa Denkendorf . How, when and why the villa was later given its current name Villa Orotava (probably based on the spa town of La Orotava on Tenerife ) is no longer known.
Denkendorf acquired some of the surrounding land in 1896, but soon leased the villa to guests. In July and August 1902, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov lived in the building with his family. Son Andreij studied the summer semester in Heidelberg to hear Kuno Fischer there, while the father composed parts of his opera Pan Wojewoda on a rented piano. At that time the young Igor Stravinsky was also staying in Heidelberg, who was accepted into the Rimsky-Korsakov family and received two double hours of private lessons a week in work analysis and instrumentation. Stravinsky remained connected to the Rimsky-Korsakov family for years. In 1908 he composed a funeral march for his father's deceased friend and in the same year the wedding music for his daughter Nadeja.
In 1907 the villa came to the timber and coal merchant and later city councilor Louis Keller and from there to the heir Johann Ludwig Keller, who sold the property in 1930 to the Catholic church servants. The villa became the residence of the Handschuhsheim nuns, for which a kind of cloister and a Marian grotto were created in the garden . In 1955 the villa came back into the private ownership of the Brandel family before the Leitz family acquired the property in 1992.
Soon after 1992, extensive renovation work was carried out on the villa, which was now clearly showing its age. During the renovation of the garden terrace, a 20-meter deep well was exposed, just like all villas in the area had received in the late 19th century for self-sufficiency. After Handschuhsheim was incorporated into Heidelberg in 1905, the place was completely canalized so that such wells were superfluous and gradually filled in. The re-exposed fountain of Villa Orotava is the last surviving self-catering fountain in Handschuhsheim.
literature
- Ernst reason: Villa Orotava in Handschuhsheim. In: District Association Handschuhsheim e. V. Yearbook 2006 , p. 63.
- Ernst Grund: Villa Orotava II. In: District Association Handschuhsheim e. V. Yearbook 2007 , pp. 30–31.
Individual evidence
- ^ Nicolai Rimskij-Korsakow: Chronicle of my musical life. Leipzig 1967, p. 420.
Coordinates: 49 ° 25 ′ 29.4 " N , 8 ° 41 ′ 21.2" E