Haus an der Redoute

A late-18th-century classical villa stands beside the old Godesberg Redoute in Bonn’s Alt-Godesberg quarter. Built in 1790 as the elector’s private theatre and residence, it was designed by Martin Leydel for Maximilian Franz of Austria. The two-storey building with its five-window façade and central three-bay portico now borders the Redoutenpark and the district town hall. The house once housed Europe’s smallest court theatre, where plays were staged for the elector and a handful of guests in a room barely 35 square metres. After passing through the hands of the von der Heydt banking family, it became a summer villa and later a municipal gallery. Today it shelters the district administration offices and a public art gallery run by local artists. Visitors find the restored interior arranged around a reconstructed ground plan. The first floor still shows the original auditorium with benches facing the ground-level stage. Upstairs offices open onto the park, and the basement galleries display changing exhibitions by Bad Godesberg creators. Outside, the classical portico and triangular pediment recall the refined tastes of the 18th-century electorate.