The property on Lessingstreet 1 belonged to the municipality of Bautzen until 1891. After that, the land was acquired by the Bautzen master builder Friedrich August Zimmermann, who realized his plans for a city villa here in 1892.
In 1946 Dr. Arthur Immisch became the owner of the house, at that time an important concert pianist in Bautzen. The house remained in the possession of the Immisch family for almost 31 years. In 1977, the villa came into the possession of the state through the renunciation of Mrs. Margot Asta Erika Immisch.
The upper floors were rented out as apartments until 1993, and a doctor's office was operated on the first floor. Without maintenance and after vacancy, the substance had gotten worse, it had to be completely renovated.
After reconstruction under monument protection regulations, it has been reopened as a hotel, the Villa Antonia, with 20 rooms since 1998. With great attention to detail and hand carvings, an original South Tyrolean Alpine room from 1854 from the village of Sand in Taufers, South Tyrol, Italy was installed in the basement, in which we now offer our guests breakfast.
Why did a real South Tyrolean room end up in Bautzen in the "capital" of the Sorbs?
In 1990, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Kretzschmar family started Europe-wide bus tours. In South Tyrol, one of the most popular destinations at the time, we found the Ristorante El Filò Speckstube so beautiful that we were able to convince the South Tyrolean carpenter to immortalize their wood art in our villa.
