Villa Zanders, Art museum in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
Villa Zanders is a three-storey brick and natural-stone building in Bergisch Gladbach, built 1873–74 by Cologne architect Hermann Otto Pflaume in the French Renaissance style, with risalits, vertical emphasis and a triumphal-arch motif. Its mansard roof has dormers; the cornice and chimneys are lost. Since 1992 it has housed the municipal art museum, with late Romantic Düsseldorf School painting on the ground floor and changing exhibitions above.
The house was built from 1873 to 1874 for the Zanders family, wealthy paper manufacturers, in the French Renaissance style. A major renovation completed in 1992 transformed it into a public art museum.
The Zanders were paper manufacturers, and the museum's collection 'Kunst aus Papier' holds around 500 works by international artists, recalling Bergisch Gladbach's 400-year papermaking tradition. The Red Salon, once the dining room, is furnished in Louis XVI style and is used for civil wedding ceremonies.
The museum entrance is at Konrad-Adenauer-Platz 8, next to the Bürgerhaus "Bergischer Löwe"; the two buildings form the town's cultural centre. The Red Salon, formerly the villa's dining room and furnished in Louis XVI style, can be booked for civil wedding ceremonies and evening events, as can the winter garden and other rooms. The Artothek on site is run by volunteers and lends over a thousand works, including an original by Joseph Beuys, for a limited period.
The Artothek, open since 1993, lends more than a thousand works, among them an original by Joseph Beuys, for display at home. It documents international art from the post-war years to the present. The museum's own paper collection, by contrast, holds around 500 works and recalls the city's 400-year papermaking tradition.
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