Strossova vila, Art Deco villa in Kristiánov, Czech Republic

Strossova vila is a two-story residence at Husova street 64 with pronounced cornices and railings that give it a ship-like appearance. The horizontal lines and stepped arrangements define its look from every angle.

Franz Stross, a merchant who had settled in Liberec after the 1919 Egyptian revolution pushed his family from Alexandria, had Thilo Schoder design the villa in 1923; Adolf Bürger built it between 1923 and 1925. The Jewish Stross family lived there only eleven years before being forced to emigrate to South America. From 1945 to 1989 the building served successively as German police headquarters, a health institute and a hygiene station; it was listed as a cultural monument in 1987 and restored between 1998 and 2001.

The ship-like form is said to answer Hilda Stross's wish to live in a house recalling her favourite cruises on the Nile. Schoder's 1924 plaster model was labelled "Nildampfer", Nile steamer. The central entrance sits amidships, with the left wing as bow and the right as stern, both carrying large terraces.

The villa stands at Husova 64 in the Kristiánov district of Liberec, on a plot of roughly 40,000 m². It now houses the Regional Hygiene Station of the Liberec Region, so the interior is not open to casual visitors; the ship-shaped exterior, with its bow and stern wings and large terraces, can be viewed from the street.

The interior was fitted with multicolored marbles, opal glass, and precious woods that spoke of great wealth. Some of these costly materials remain and show the skilled craftsmanship of the period.