Villa Senar
(c) Priska Ketterer
Just in time for the 150th birthday of the pianist, composer and conductor Sergei Rachmaninov, his Villa Senar in Hertenstein near Lucerne radiates in its original colour scheme. Exactly one year ago, the Canton of Lucerne purchased the estate, located directly on Lake Lucerne, and restored essential elements. Cultural events are to be held in the house under the management of the Serge Rachmaninov Foundation, and the villa and park will be open to visitors.
The park is open during the warm seasons and in good weather on weekends and public holidays (the opening hours can be viewed on the cantonal website of Villa Senar).
Rachmaninov commissioned Lucerne architects Alfred Möri and Karl Friedrich Krebs to build the Villa Senar and the other buildings on the estate in the 1930s. « It is an exemplary building for the modernist movement in central Switzerland, » says Cony Grünenfelder, the cantonal preservationist. The combination of the villa’s intrinsic architectural value, its exceptional location on the lake and its significance in terms of personal history distinguishes the ensemble as something unique, she says.
Villa Senar
(c) Priska Ketterer
Since July 2022, craftsmen have been working at full speed to restore the house and park to the way Rachmaninoff knew his summer residence and which he himselfactively co-created. Although the house has undergone surprisingly little change over three generations, essential elements had to be exposed, restored or rebuilt.
The most eye-catching measure is the restoration of the original colour scheme. Thus, the house, which was white a year ago, now appears in its original yellowish ochre, and the rooms on the first floor have been restored to their original, meticulously and masterfully coordinated hues.
