Villa Dietrichstein

Knight Dr. Joseph Brenner von Felsach, saline physician and later head of the Wirer Health and Bathing Facility (Wirer´schen Badestiftung) built this villa in 1840 for him and his family. It is presumed that the architect of the villa was saline architect Emanuel Tschann. However, little is known about his work, with the exception for the demolished Villa Sickingen/ Starhemberg, which was located on Grazerstrasse where is now the local high school. The building was similar to the much smaller Villa Brenner-Felsach.

Brenner was also cofounder and first head of the first hospital of Ischl (Brenner Spital) on the eponymous Brennerstrasse. Furthermore, he was an honorary citizen of Ischl. He founded the Museum of the Township of Bad Ischl, and was president of the male choral society and the musical society of Ischl many years. He coowned the villa with his wife Amalie, who died in 1864. After her death, their son Josef inherited her ownership share, father and son sold the villa in the same year to Princess Gabriela von Dietrichstein-Proskau-Leslie, (née Countess Wratislaw-Mitrowitz), Court Lady to the Empress.

In 1881, her daughter Princess Alexandrine Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein inherited the villa and in 1908 her heirs sold the house to a businessman from Ischl surnamed Häuptner. Three other owners followed.

In 1941, the villa was taken over by the Forestry of the Third Reich and used as a forestry office and official residence. After the war, the Austrian Federal Forestry Office became the owner of the villa. They still own it today. During renovation work in the 1980’s, the roofed balcony above the entrance was completely renewed. The Forest Administration of Ischl was closed in 2004.