Villa Franck, Historicist villa in Murrhardt, Germany

Villa Franck is a historicist summer residence built from 1904 on a south-facing slope above Murrhardt, with 1,200 square metres of living space in 42 rooms. Its south side follows Palladio's manner: a long flight of steps with a fountain pedestal, cut from Maulbronner Buntsandstein, while the facade and portal carry stonework in Crailsheimer Muschelkalk. The balustrades and arches of the south altane copy those of Schloss Solitude.

Robert Franck, whose wife came from Murrhardt, bought a former monastery vineyard in 1897; the vines had been destroyed by downy mildew. From 1904 the architects Georg Staehelin and Paul Schmohl built the summer residence, occupied in 1907. After Franck's death in 1939 the costly estate was sold; in 1951 it passed to the Social Work of the Christian Community, which ran a retirement community until the 1990s and later the Haus Hohenstein care home. Since 2001 conductor Patrick Siben has used and restored it.

The villa is named after the Franck family, and its second building, Haus Cornelia, took the name of the family's favourite horse; it later made way for the Michaelkirche in the 1960s. Since 2001 the conductor Patrick Siben has used and restored the house, which now holds a café and serves for banquets and events.

The villa stands at Hohenstein 1 on a south-facing slope above Murrhardt, with the main entrance on the north side reached by car and few steps. The 132-step outdoor staircase on the south side was closed in the 1980s as unsafe, restored in the 2000s and is open again. The park covers 7 hectares; the tennis court's asphalt surface, edges and service lines can still be traced.

The tennis court in the park had an asphalt surface and was probably the first hard court in Germany; traces of the surface, the edge and the service lines can still be made out. The garden hall beside it is said to have been shown at the Paris World's Fair, and it survives, though a plastic sheet covering it has caused mould.