Palais Biron

The Palais Biron stands in Baden-Baden’s Lichtental district, a former grand villa turned meeting place. It was built in 1857 for Johanna Merck and her husband Ernst by the architect Auguste de Meuron. The house was later remodelled in the Jugendstil by Scherzinger and Härke for Gustav Adolf Redwitz and renamed Haus Eden. In 1920 Princess Françoise Biron von Curland bought it and gave it its present name. The city took it over in 1941 and used it as a military hospital during the war. The building’s history reflects Baden-Baden’s changing fortunes across two centuries. After 1945 French forces occupied the house, and from 1957 the Chamber of Commerce began using it for events. A rose bred by Pierre Orard in 2010 now grows in the palace grounds. Since 2013 the SWR television programme lesenswert has filmed its literary features here. Visitors find a stately villa with Jugendstil interiors and a park along the Lichtentaler Allee. The former coach house now houses an IHK branch. The palace garden contains the named rose Palais Biron, planted in 2010.