Moller Villa, Historic mansion in Jing'an District, China.
Moller Villa is a historic residence in Jing'an District that combines European architectural styles with a modern interior layout. The exterior features brown-tiled roofs, pointed gables, and towers that give the building a castle-like appearance when viewed from the surrounding streets.
Eric Moller, a Swedish shipping magnate, expanded an existing residence on this site from 1927; the main structure predates 1914 and the extension was finished by 1935, with the boundary wall completed in July 1937. After the Pacific War began in 1941 the villa served as a Japanese club, then housed Kuomintang and Sanqingtuan offices, and from 1949 the Shanghai Public Security Bureau and the Communist Youth League. It became a hotel in 2001 and a national heritage site in 2006.
The residence shows how foreign architectural styles blended with local decorative details when wealthy merchants built homes in Shanghai. Today, visitors can see how these mixed influences appear in the building's exterior materials and its general form.
The building sits on South Shanxi Road and functions today as a hotel with dining facilities, making it accessible to visitors during business hours. Since it operates as a working establishment, some interior areas may have limited access depending on hotel operations.
The bronze horse on the lawn marks a tomb: Eric Moller buried his favourite horse and other pets there, inside the garden wall. The two stone lions at the front gate are Chinese, not European, and the perimeter wall is faced with firebrick and capped with yellow-green glazed Chinese tiles.
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