Villa Urvasi, Heritage monument in Weisser Hirsch, Dresden, Germany.
Villa Urvasi is a long, elongated villa at Lahmannring 17 in Weisser Hirsch, built in 1912 by architect Max Herfurt in the Reformarchitektur style of the early 20th century. It held almost 90 apartments, and nearly every room had its own balcony, which made it one of the most comfortable houses in the district. It is a listed monument, ID 09211707.
Max Herfurt built the villa in 1912 on the site of an earlier country house from the 1880s that was originally linked to the Lahmann Sanatorium. The sanatorium connection ended around 1940, after which the building gradually transformed into purely residential use.
The villa is probably named after Urvashi, a nymph of Hindu mythology. The name may also refer to Wilhelm Kienzl's opera Urvasi, based on Kalidasa's Indian poetry, premiered in Dresden on 20 February 1886. The earlier country house on the site already carried the name Urvasi.
The villa stands at Lahmannring 17 in Weißer Hirsch, in Dresden's north-east; tram and bus stops on the nearby main road put the street within a short walk. The building is a private residence, so visitors see only the facade and the roof, which was destroyed by fire in June 2022 and left 38 households unable to stay.
A major fire in June 2022 destroyed the roof structure and forced around 38 residents to evacuate from this protected building. Rebuilding the roof presented a challenge because the monument's historical qualities had to be preserved.
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