Strauss Villa (former)

Strauss Villa was located at this place

former Erdödy Villa

Here, at the end of the esplanade, was once the Erdödy Villa, an especially interesting building because classicism and the local country style were mixed.

Johann Strauss bought the villa in 1897. He had visited Ischl in previous years, the first time in 1855. He created many pieces in Ischl and liked being here.

In 1897, he had a special encounter: he met King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) of Siam during the Siam State visit to Austria. The encounter took place after Strauss himself conducted the overture of the operetta Die Fledermaus in the theater of Ischl for the king.

In 1899, Strauss died in Vienna, but his widow continued to visit Ischl.  The Viennese Music Association inherited the villa. The Association eventually sold it to Ischl hotelier Leopold Petter.

After WWII, the beautiful villa with its big garden served as a boarding house of the women’s vocational training school (“Frauenberufschule”) of Ischl.

At the end of the ‘60s, due to incomprehensible municipality politics, the musical-history-storied villa was leveled like many other irretrievable buildings.

Today, a big grey, no-feast-for-the-eyes apartment building occupies where music history was once made.

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