Villa Swoboda

Facade of the villa facing the city

The Villa Swoboda (Swoboda: slaw . = Freedom), today called Casa Austria , is a building from the early days in the Salzburg municipality of Anif , right on the city limits of Salzburg (Keltenallee 3). The villa, built in 1868 and owned by aristocrats, is now inhabited by Karl Habsburg-Lothringen , Otto Habsburg's son , and advertised as a venue for exclusive celebrations.

history

One of the largest farms in Anif in the 19th century was the Mayerhofgut , which belonged to the manor of the Chiemsee diocese , the auxiliary bishops of the archdiocese from time immemorial. In the second half of the 19th century the company ran into economic difficulties and had to be sold piece by piece. Wilhelm Swoboda, a pharmaceutical wholesaler from Vienna, bought a large plot of land including the Mayerhofergut in 1866. He had the area fenced in and a park laid out in the style of an English garden . He also commissioned the Viennese architect Karl Sattler to build a grand villa in the neo-renaissance style, which was completed in 1869.

A special event in the history of the villa was the fact that Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and Princess Stephanie of Belgium spent part of their honeymoon here. Crown Prince Rudolf had welcomed his future wife on Salzburg soil in 1881; the people of Salzburg had given the couple a cupboard, the wood of which came from the pear tree on the Walserfeld . The imperial couple had spent their wedding night in the imperial Laxenburg palace near Vienna, but Stephanie is said to have complained about the inadequate furnishings. Since Salzburg was planned as one of the honeymoon stations, Villa Swoboda was rented for the imperial couple.

• Villa Swoboda
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  Villa Swoboda from the south side

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  Park of the Villa Swoboda

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  Villa Swoboda in summer

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  Outbuildings

In 1884, Alois Graf von Arco-Stepperg acquired the Montforterhof and its surroundings. His only daughter Sophie Arco-Steppberg, married Countess Moy de Sons, inherited the entire property in 1893. She bought Villa Swoboda in 1904. In 1910 she also acquired the rest of the Mayrhofergut. The Villa Swoboda and the moated castle Anif with the estate management went from Countess Sophie to her nephew, the art historian Johannes Graf von Moy. His adopted son, Johannes Graf von Moy, is now also the owner of Villa Swoboba.

Casa Austria today

The villa stands out due to its colourfulness and an asymmetrically placed tower with a flat roof. The building is strongly structured by white bezels and ashlar at the corners. In terms of architectural history, the building has a romantic orientation. Even today, the surrounding grounds are still undeveloped, with the exception of a few commercial buildings of the villa (today, among others, the Lederleitner nursery has a branch there).

In the late 1990s, the villa was renovated on behalf of Johannes Graf von Moy and then made available to Karl Habsburg-Lothringen as a residence. Even now Villa Swoboda, today also called Casa Austria (' House of Austria '), is the residence of Karl Habsburg-Lothringen.

The villa is also marketed as a special “ambience for exclusive events”.

Web links

Commons : Villa Swoboda  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Villa Swoboda . In: Salzburger Nachrichten : Salzburgwiki .
2. ^ Crown Prince Rudolf . In: Salzburger Nachrichten: Salzburgwiki .
3. ↑ Location tip: Casa Austria ( Memento of the original from July 27, 2012 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. , gassner-gastronomie.at

Coordinates: 47 ° 45 ′ 39 "  N , 13 ° 3 ′ 28.8"  E