Villa Hügel

Description

High above the Ruhr Valley and the Baldeneysee in Essen-Bredeney stands Villa Hügel, the stately former residence of the industrial Krupp family. The castle-like estate comprises approximately 11,000 square metres of usable floor space with 399 rooms and is set within a roughly 40-hectare hill park.

The building was erected between 1870 and 1873 at the instigation of Alfred Krupp as the family’s new residence, after the family’s role in the corporate context had changed. The construction phase was fraught with conflict and was delayed by structural problems, shortages of materials and personnel, and by the war; the house was completed at the end of 1872, and the family moved into the rooms in 1873. Over the following generations, furnishings and uses changed: in the late 19th and early 20th centuries extensive collections and extensions were created; in 1945 the property was used by occupying forces and it was returned to the family in 1952. Since 1953 the villa has been open to the public; today the property belongs to the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung, and the Kulturstiftung Ruhr is based there.

Numerous historic salons and living rooms have been preserved in the house; in the Kleinen Haus the Historische Ausstellung Krupp presents the family’s and the company’s history. The villa continues to serve as a venue for exhibitions and concerts and preserves technical testimony of its time: from early-installed waterworks and gas systems through early electrical supply to heating and ventilation experiments, as well as a historically significant organ on the gallery of the Upper Hall. The park, originally laid out by its builder and later redesigned as an English landscape park, contributes to the overall experience with its mature tree population.