New life for an old house – Stay overnight in a historic villa – thanks to millions of private people – News

The Villa Sonnenberg in Lenzburg (AG) has stood for 250 years. Now it is newly renovated and is a B&B.

Old villas in Swiss cities are always the talk of the town: the “Bodum villas” in Lucerne fell apart, in St. Gallen it was the Villa Wiesental, and in Winterthur-Wülflingen the Erb villa stood empty for years. All of these buildings are now being renovated by private investors and then used privately in various ways: as a luxury residence, a law firm or an apartment building. There is now a renovated villa in Lenzburg that should also please tourists and the population.

Villa Sonnenberg: before – after

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Before: This is what the Mieg villa looked like before it was renovated. The 250-year-old building is a national monument, which is why strict requirements had to be observed for the renovation.

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The renovated villa: The house was built around 1770 by the governor of Bern.

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In some cases it is possible to make the historic houses accessible to the public. However, the canton or municipality often has to spend a lot of money to achieve this. Not so in Lenzburg: Here, the former home of composer and artist Peter Mieg is now being used as a “cultural guest house”. A private individual renovated it for several million francs.

Listed country house

The listed Villa Sonnenberg in Lenzburg stands at the foot of the Schlossberg in a park that is 2,500 square meters in size. The villa itself is a Bernese country house from the 18th century in the Baroque style that is a national monument.

The fate of this house was also uncertain for a long time. The Peter Mieg Foundation announced in 2017 that it would have to sell the villa. There was not enough money for the renovation and maintenance of the large complex on the outskirts of the city, directly below the Lenzburg Castle, which is known throughout Switzerland.

Renovation too expensive?

For a long time no one was interested in the property. The city of Lenzburg also did not want to take over the building. “Too expensive,” it was said in the local parliament.

The house with a large garden cost more than three million francs, and it probably needed another million for renovation.

Nevertheless, in the end a buyer was found: the Lenzburg historian Christine von Arx, former director of the local Burghalde Museum. She bought the building and renovated it with the help of her husband’s company, a real estate development company from Basel.

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The rooms of Villa Sonnenberg were extensively renovated. They can now be used for seminars or wedding ceremonies, for example.

zvg/Villa Sonnenberg

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The bedrooms are also rented. With their deep doors, they are reminiscent of the 18th century origins of the villa. The wallpapers are based on the style of the 19th century.

zvg/Villa Sonnenberg

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The villa is surrounded by English-style gardens. In the background you can see the small barn, which, along with other buildings, complements the villa.

SRF/Ruth Steiner

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In the kitchen of the renovated Villa Sonnenberg, modern furniture is combined with historical interior fittings, including an oven from the early 20th century.

zvg/Villa Sonnenberg

The Sonnenberg is privately owned, but open to the public. As a bed and breakfast, but also as a studio for book authors, as the house is available to an “artist in residence” for several months. There should also be space for seminars or festivities.

The artist Peter Mieg

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Legend:

Composer, painter and writer Peter Mieg in a recording from 1959.

KEYSTONE/PHOTOPRESS ARCHIVE/STR

Peter Mieg was born in Lenzburg in 1906. He studied music history, German and French literature, archeology and art history in Zurich, Basel and Paris.

Initially working as a feature critic, Mieg increasingly emerged as a composer of instrumental concerts and chamber music from 1950 onwards. Based on traditional forms, Mieg created a lyrical, homophonic, extremely transparent sound language. He was one of the most frequently performed Swiss composers from the 1950s to the 70s. Mieg also emerged as a watercolor painter. He also worked as an author.

Incidentally, he served as the model for the character of the eccentric composer and painter Edmond de Mog in the novel burner by Hermann Burger (1942–1989).

In 1990, Peter Mieg died at the age of 85 in the Aarau Cantonal Hospital.

Sources: Michael Schneider: “Mieg, Peter”, in: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland, Peter Mieg Foundation, Lenzburg

The new owner has invested a lot of money. Christine von Arx does not give an exact amount. Money isn’t the main focus anyway, she says. She founded a foundation that now runs the cultural and meeting place in Villa Sonnenberg.

Villa Sonnenberg is very familiar.

The Sonnenberg is not comparable to other offers in the region. “It’s very familiar,” says Christine von Arx on the tour of the bedrooms on the first floor.

It is quite possible that in the future it will not be primarily the well-known Lenzburg Castle that will attract tourists to Lenzburg, but also the newly renovated Villa Sonnenberg, including overnight accommodation.