Radetzkystrasse 1

The Villa Iwan Rosenthal stands in Hohenems, Vorarlberg, at the northern edge of the former Jewish quarter. Built in 1890 in a neoclassical and baroque style, it was designed to show the wealth and power of the Rosenthal family. The villa is a protected monument and forms part of a larger complex that includes a carriage house, servants’ quarters and an economy building. The villa’s history reflects the rise and fall of its owners. Josef Rosenthal bought the site in 1807, and his son August built a town house there in 1823. Iwan and Franziska Rosenthal transformed the estate in 1890, linking the main house to the servants’ wing with a bowling alley. After the family left in 1914, the villa passed through different hands until it was restored between 2021 and 2025 and reopened in April 2025 as the new home of the Vorarlberg Literature House. Visitors enter through a three-storey main block with a hipped roof and classical entrance. A glass-roofed staircase leads to the first floor, where a grand hall displays painted putti and a central painting of cherubs in the clouds. Beyond lie the panelled dining room, a winter garden and a music room, all richly decorated. A narrow passage connects to the bowling alley, whose interior shows Japanese influences in its painted walls and carved wooden ceiling. The park behind the villa, covering most of the eight-thousand-square-metre site, completes the impression of a late 19th-century industrialist’s residence.