Hermesvilla

The Hermes Villa is a castle in the Lainzer Tiergarten, a fenced hunting and now also the nature reserve in Vienna. The villa's name refers to a Hermes statue in white marble, which is located in the garden in front of the villa. Emperor Franz Joseph I gave them to his wife, Empress Elisabeth, as the " Castle of Dreams". Today the Villa Hermes is used for exhibitions of the Vienna Museum.

History

For the construction of the "Villa Waldruh " - the original project name - Emperor Franz Joseph decided in the summer of 1881 he left the plant from 1882 to 1886 built by the architect Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer for his wife, his courtly ceremonial often away. wanted.

No later than 1885, the decision was to give the castle to the name "Villa Hermes ". The Empress herself commissioned the Berlin sculptor Ernst Herter with the design of the sculpture " Hermes the guardian ", which should be placed in the garden. 1886 was the building, including all outbuildings, such as the riding school of the empress completed. 1887 to 1898 ( on September 10, 1898 Elizabeth was assassinated ) held the imperial couple regularly in late spring at least some days, but mostly a few weeks here on.

In the course of further construction of the emperor ordered the bulldozing of all fields within the parforce plank and the elimination of molehills, because your Majesty else here locally could not ride. On the banks of the nearest pond in the Tiergarten Lainzer a bathing hut was built for the Empress, who is no longer preserved. The road to Villa Hermes ( Hermes today's street ) was one of the first of Vienna, the received electric lighting; in 1896 the highest villa with the Central Telephonstelle in Vienna was connected.

The Lainzer Tiergarten was 1855 imperial private property in the so-called Hofärar, by the Imperial Household managed state property transferred. Therefore, the Hofärar fell in 1918 to the Republic. In the corporate state dictatorship of the Tiergarten and the Hermes Villa was transferred to the ownership of the City of Vienna. In the Nazi era, the zoo was in 1941 declared a nature reserve.

During the occupation period 1945-1955 was one of the zoo since he was only in 1938 enters into the city of Vienna, the Soviet occupation zone Lower Austria. The Hermes Villa was pulled by soldiers severely affected.

1963 awoke - after the Walt Disney film production The Miracle of the White Stallions, which was partly filmed here - again interest in the building, but the city government initially showed little initiative. Due to the private initiative of well-known personalities, including former Mayor Bruno Marek ( Association of Friends of the Hermes Villa ), the Villa was a quarter-century after the war, from 1968 to 1974, extensively renovated.

The first exhibition in 1971 was opened as Austria's contribution to the World Hunting Exhibition in Budapest. Since then repeatedly held exhibitions in the Hermes Villa, which has long been used by the city of Vienna " recorded " museum. Foreign visitors are interested mainly inhabited by the Empress Elisabeth rooms, which have largely been faithfully restored.

Affairs

In-room amenities include paintings by Hans Makart, Gustav Klimt and Viktor Tilgner.

On the first floor of the villa there are the private apartments of the Empress. Your gymnastic exercises graduated from the body-conscious Sisi in the exercise room. This was once equipped with a balance beam, different strut rods and rings. The mural in the Pompeian style shows various sports and was executed by August Eisenmenger, Hugo Charlemont and Adolf Falkenstein.

Behind the toilet room is the bedroom. In contrast to other rooms many original objects have been preserved in the bedroom of the Empress. So the huge baroque bed of state dated from the time of Maria Theresa and Emperor once stood in the room of the post office Strengberg in Amstetten. The wall paintings based on motifs from Shakespeare's " Midsummer Night's Dream " were executed after designs by Hans Makart. From the bedroom, a spiral staircase leads to the ground floor and in the garden. In the salon you can find the reconstructed ceiling painting " Spring " by Franz Matsch, Klimt Gustav Klimt and Georg.

In urban expansion fund numerous stone deliveries are documented, Sterzinger marble, marble of Lasa and Wöllersdorfer stone stairways in the main building, the toughest men Strand Stone, Almaser Stone, Linda Brunner conglomerate, St. Margarethen stone, and Kaiserstein from Kaiser quarry were used in outbuildings.

Immediately before the castle stands since 2001, the sculpture " Elisabeth" by Ulrike Truger. With this statue, the artist explores the tension between "forced - Escape - Freedom ", which was exposed to the Empress. The sculpture in Carrara marble is about 2.5 meters high and 6.5 tons. With her ​​work Truger wanted to create an antithesis to the current Sisi cliché. The three sides of the sculpture represent the ambivalence of their personality, the subjects for the compulsion of the jacket for the flight and the wings of freedom.

Stables

The stables of horses to the Empress were in the left wing of the Hoftraktes. The original barn equipment, such as the partitions of the boxes and ( then usual ) Stands, are still largely present. Between boxes and stanchion barn there is a so-called " Rondeau ". A circular structure with a diameter of 20 meters, where the horses were lunged in bad weather.

From the 1950s to the year 2005, these stables were used as a summer stable for the Lipizzaner stallions of the Spanish Riding School. For seven weeks, the stallions were out riding in the Tiergarten area. 1962 Walt Disney turned here ( see above).