The Mühle House ( ro, Casa Mühle) is a historical

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

in the

Elisabetin Elisabetin ( hu, Erzsébetváros; german: Elisabethstadt) is a historic district of Timișoara. History The land on which Elisabetin is located today was ceded to the inhabitants of Cetate by ''Grundbrief des bürgerlichen Terrains'' (Deed of ow ...

district of

Timișoara ), City of Roses ( ro, Orașul florilor), City of Parks ( ro, Orașul parcurilor) , image_map = Timisoara jud Timis.svg , map_caption = Location in Timiș County , pushpin_map = Romania#Europe , pushpin_ ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. The house belonged to the famous family of

florist Floristry is the production, commerce, and trade in flowers. It encompasses flower care and handling, floral design and arrangement, merchandising, production, display and flower delivery. Wholesale florists sell bulk flowers and related sup ...

s Mühle. It is part of Michael the Brave Boulevard urban ensemble, listed as a

historical monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

with

LMI code The National Register of Historic Monuments ( ro, Lista Monumentelor Istorice (LMI)) is the official English name of the Romania government's list of national heritage sites known as Monumente istorice. In Romania, these include sites, buildings, ...

TM-II-a-B-06110.

History

By the mid-19th century, there was another house approximately on the site of the current building. It was built somewhere between 1866 and 1868 and purchased by Wilhelm (Vilmos) Mühle in 1878. A year after his father's death, in 1909, Árpád will obtain a building permit for a house with a garden, a building that can still be seen today. The Mühle House was designed by the Viennese architect Oskar Reinhart, and the builder was Josef Hofgärtner from Timișoara. Reinhart was related to the famous family of florists from Timișoara, his mother's

maiden name When a person (traditionally the wife in many cultures) assumes the family name of their spouse, in some countries that name replaces the person's previous surname, which in the case of the wife is called the maiden name ("birth name" is also use ...

being Anna Mühle. The Mühle family also owned a building in the Cetate district, known to this day as the House with Flowers, due to the fact that it housed the Mühle family's shop of flowers, seeds and floral arrangements, being also the central point where they exhibited and sold their products developed in their greenhouses and nurseries from the

district. Mühle had 17 greenhouses and a vast garden in Timișoara, which stretched from the Bega Canal to today's Nicolae Bălcescu Square. On its land are now the

West University West University Place, often called West University or West U for short, is a city located in the U.S. state of Texas within the metropolitan area and southwestern Harris County. At the 2020 U.S. census, the population of the city was 14,955. ...

, the Politehnica University and its stadium with dormitories. After Ernst, Árpád's son, sold part of the horticultural domains, the family business declined. The last descendant to live there, Wilhelm's great-granddaughter, emigrated to Germany in 1992. Eventually, the house entered the possession of a wealthy Roma family that allowed it to fall into ruins. They intended to demolish the house in 2012. Following protests and the intervention of the city hall, a court ordered its restoration in 2016. The works began in February 2020 and were completed with delays in July 2023.

Architecture

A house with a mezzanine and a high ground floor, it was an eclectic-style building with neo-baroque influences, punctuated by the shape of the roof and the way the entrance staircase was arranged.

References

{{PlacesTimișoara Buildings and structures in Timișoara Houses in Romania Houses completed in 1909 Historic monuments in Timiș County