Villa Patumbah
The Villa Patumbah at Zollikerstrasse 128 in Zurich was built between 1883 and 1885 by the architects Chiodera and Tschudy for Karl Fürchtegott Grob . The extraordinarily wealthy client had acquired his wealth with a tobacco plantation on Sumatra . Today the villa is one of the most important witnesses of historicism in Zurich and is a listed building . Patumbak is the name of the village that was near Grob's first plantation and that gave it its name. In various writings in Zurich it is stated that the name in Malay means desired land . However, patumbak is simply a field name.
Location and surroundings
In 1883 Karl Fürchtegott Grob acquired 13,000 m² of land between Zollikerstrasse and Mühlebachstrasse in Riesbach from his brother Johann Heinrich Grob, with an unobstructed view of the city, lake and mountains, on which he had a villa with an economic building built over the next two years. Riesbach, at that time still a suburb of Zurich, was next to the Enge a preferred place of residence of wealthy Zurich residents and Riesbach's most beautiful villas were built on Zollikerstrasse. The Villa Patumbah surpasses its neighbors by far in terms of splendor and prestige.
Shortly after the completion of the villa, immissions threatened to destroy the rural idyll: The new railway line for the Northeast Railway was to be built on the right bank of Lake Zurich and passed the Grob-Zundel family's property. In order to protect himself from the smoke and the noise of the railway, Karl Fürchtegott Grob had the tunnel extended and covered to the end of his property. He took over the 100,000 francs for the construction work in full, and at the same time he owned the land that was created.
architecture
Chiodera & Tschudy designed the outer shell of the villa based on the architecture of the Renaissance . The richly decorated piano nobile rises above the rusticated basement . This is richly structured by means of polychrome paintings that were executed in germinal colors . The trompe l'œil decorations give the impression that this is a marble-clad facade. Windows, doors and niches are crowned by blown segmental arches and framed by Veronese and Carrara marble . The east facade facing the street was particularly emphasized: The representative balcony is supported by splendid consoles, and the facade at the level of the Piano Nobile is structured by two statues, Mercury and Flora, standing in niches. Mercury has to be seen Grobs in relation to the commercial activities and Flora represents the wealth resulting from it. The PATUMBAH lettering is also attached below the roof . The mezzanine floor , which is also richly decorated , rises above the piano nobile , which in turn is structured by trompe l'œil paintings and framed occuli.
The villa is connected to the utility building via a one-storey, richly decorated intermediate building, which - entirely in historical style - is made in the Swiss timber construction style. Together, the three structures leave out a forecourt, a kind of Cour d'Honneur . The utility building, which housed the horses and wagons of the Grob-Zundel family, is made of red and yellow clinker brick and richly decorated with motifs from the fields of rider and horse. An exotic butterfly can be found at the iron gate to the Cour d'Honneur.
Inside the villa, the representative rooms are located on the ground floor, facing the park. The architects consistently continue historicist eclecticism and quote freely from European and East Asian art history. The salon and the master bedroom are designed in the Renaissance style. Both have a painted, coffered ceiling. The walls of the salon are covered with half-height paneling and wallpaper with a floral pattern. In addition, there is a green tiled tower stove and a buffet in the Gothic salon. The ladies room is done in the Rococo style. The family's private rooms and chambers for the servants were on the first and second floors. The two upper floors are grouped around a hall that is crowned by a colored glass dome. The surrounding gallery is decorated with Far Eastern carvings and paintings; even the doors are painted with Chinese-style ink drawings.
Study
salon
Ladies room
Ceiling ground floor
Stairwell
Glass dome
Park
Grob hired the garden architect Evariste Mertens for the park , who created an English-style garden for the client in 1890/1891 on the 13,500 square meter property. This had an ornamental garden with a water basin and fountain, flower beds, large meadows, an aviary, a gymnasium, groups of trees and a kitchen garden, which made up about a quarter of the entire park area. The garden pavilion from 1883 was built according to plans by the Hirzel & Koch architects' office .
Fountain in the park
Garden pavilion
southern staircase
northern staircase
History of the building and the park
The client died in 1893 as a result of an illness he had brought with him from the tropics and bequeathed the property to his wife Anna Grob-Zundel and his two daughters. After his death, they continued to live in the house until they gave the villa to the Diakoniewerk Neumünster as a gift in 1911. As a result, the villa first housed a rest home and later a retirement home. In 1929 the Diakoniewerk sold the northern half of the park to procure operating resources. In 1977, the villa and the southern half of the park became the property of the City of Zurich. Between 1988 and 1990 the southern half of the park was reconstructed according to the original plans, after it had been assigned to the free zone in a referendum in 1985. In 1993 the northern, private section of the park was also placed under protection, whereupon the owners appealed and got the right.
In 1995 the "Foundation for the Preservation of Patumbah Park" was set up to save this half of the park. In 2006, this foundation was renamed the “Patumbah Foundation” and today, thanks to an investor, is the owner of the northern half of the park. Her aim is to find a holistic solution for park and villa; The villa and coach house are to be renovated. The conservation efforts are concentrated on the villa. The preservation of the park has been fought for years, as the northern half of the park, which was separated off in 1929, is located in the construction zone. Since 2005 there have been plans for a hammam and 35 apartments. This construction project provides for the preservation of the inner parking area and has now been implemented. The “Pro Patumbah Park Association”, together with the Swiss Society for Garden Culture (SGGK), launched a popular initiative for the integral preservation of the park and demanded that the disputed area be rezoned into the free zone and open to the public. The initiative was clearly rejected by the citizens of Zurich on February 8, 2009.
After three years of renovation, the first homeland security center in Switzerland was opened in the villa on August 23, 2013 . On the ground floor, it houses the main part of the public permanent exhibition "Experience building culture - up close!" and on the upper floors the office of the Swiss Homeland Security (SHS).
literature
- Poly-Festschrift II, Zurich 1905, p. 434.
- Zürcher Wochen-Chronik 1905, p. 97.
- Walks to architectural eccentrics. The Patumbah Villa. in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of November 30, 1960.
- Rudolf Schilling: The art that adorns. In: Tages-Anzeiger-Magazin of June 29, 1974, pp. 8-9.
- Dieter Nievergelt: Examples of memories of wealthy builders. In: Turicum 1989 (summer), pp. 12-22. (with references)
- Inventory of recent Swiss architecture : Zurich. Zurich 1992, p. 436.
- Zurich Monument Preservation, Report 1991/1992. Zurich 1993, pp. 177-181.
- Historicist villas 1880–1905. Zurich 1993, pp. 6-7.
- The Villa Patumbah in Zurich - history and restoration. Zurich 2014, ISBN 978-3-906299-60-0
Web links
- Patumbah Foundation
- Homeland Security Center at Villa Patumbah
- Hammam project
- Patumbahpark project
- Limmattaler Zeitung, June 7, 2013: Homeland Security moves into its new home in Villa Patumbah
Individual evidence
- ↑ Park and green areas ( Memento of the original dated May 27, 2011 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. . Website of the City of Zurich, Green City of Zurich. Retrieved July 25, 2010
- ↑ New exhibition in the Villa Patumbah. NZZ of August 23, 2013:
