Villa Merian, Villa with English garden in Münchenstein, Switzerland
Villa Merian is a manor house on the elevated plain above Brüglingen in Münchenstein. Its present look dates from the 1858/59 rebuild by architect Johann Jakob Stehlin in Second Empire style: rendered walls with cast-iron elements, imitation ashlar on the ground floor, a two-storey cast-iron portico pavilion and a small Neo-Rococo belfry on the hipped roof. Behind the house lies an English garden.
The original baroque structure was built in 1711 by Alexander Löffler but underwent major renewal in the early 1800s when neoclassical styling was introduced. The polygonal towers were removed during this 1801 transformation, completely reshaping the building's exterior appearance.
The villa now houses the Café Merian, installed on the ground floor for the 1980 Grün 80 garden exhibition, and the estate has belonged to the Christoph Merian Stiftung since 1886. The foundation's Brüglingen farmyards, the mill museum and the botanical garden merged into the Merian Gärten in 2012.
The villa houses the Café Merian on its ground floor, and the surrounding Merian Gärten are open to the public. The site lies on the elevated terrace above the Watermill Museum Brüglingen, which can be reached on foot from Münchenstein. The gardens cover about 13 hectares and connect to paths along the Birs.
A medieval mill still stands on the property, operating in earlier times as part of the working estate, while a farmhouse added in 1837 completes the ensemble. This mix of structures reflects how the property expanded and evolved over several centuries.
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