Villa Trapp, Protected heritage villa in Aigen, Salzburg, Austria.
Villa Trapp is a two-storey villa with a pale yellow facade and white trim, its dark grey mansard roof pierced by four dormer windows with curved tops. The left facade has three tall multi-paned windows on each floor; the centre ground floor projects slightly in white, with an arched entrance door under a fanlight flanked by two arched niches holding small windows and wall lanterns. To the right, two upper windows have dark shutters. Architect Valentin Ceconi built it in 1863.
Architect Valentin Ceconi built the villa in 1863; it was sold in 1864 to Walburga Weinwurm, hence the name Villa Walburga. In 1883 Countess Berta Lamberg bought it and extended it northwards with two bays and tower additions. Georg Ludwig von Trapp, a grandson of Count Lamberg, took it over in 1923 and had Spindler & Rehrl remodel it, fitting out the attic for his seven children; the family lived here until fleeing to the USA in 1938. During the Nazi period Heinrich Himmler resided in the house, and in 1953 it passed to the Missionaries of the Precious Blood.
The house is known as Villa Trapp because Georg Ludwig von Trapp moved his family here in 1923; the name spread through the 1956 film Die Trapp-Familie and the musical The Sound of Music. The family lived here until fleeing the Nazis in 1938. Since 2021 the Missionaries of the Precious Blood run it as Haus Magnificat, and the chapel has been reinstated using stored coloured church windows.
The villa is at Traunstraße 36 in Salzburg's Aigen district, near the Georg-von-Trapp-Straße. Since the hotel lease ended in 2021 it has been run by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood as Haus Magnificat, with rooms for lay members and for people coming for retreats or spiritual reflection. The chapel, refitted using the stored coloured church windows, is part of the house again.
The chapel that Himmler supposedly turned into a beer hall may never have existed as such: the original building plans show no chapel room. After the order took over, the chapel was refitted using stored coloured church windows.
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