Villa Grünau

Villa Grünau stands beside the Bregenzer Ach in Kennelbach, a small town in Vorarlberg. The two-storey villa was built between 1887 and 1888 for the Schindler family, owners of a large cotton-spinning mill powered by the river. After the family left in 1950 the building became a rental property and later fell into disrepair. In 1992 Kennelbach council bought the villa and turned part of it into municipal offices while converting the rest into flats. The villa’s importance lies in its links to the early industrial age and to electrical invention. Friedrich Wilhelm Schindler, who lived here, experimented in the cellar and showed his electric kitchen at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. The house earned the nickname ‘the electric house’ because it contained early electric cookers, heaters, irons and even an electric cigar lighter. A central vacuum system ran through the walls, and the interiors featured wall paintings, a grand music hall, a large dome and elaborate lighting. Visitors today find the villa’s former living rooms arranged as offices and flats, yet the main spaces still show their original purpose. The music hall retains its dome and chandeliers, and the park still holds the fountain and deer that once marked the estate. The surrounding area keeps traces of the Schindlers’ wider holdings, including the converted upper villa and the old factory site nearby.