20070906

Verenahof in decay


Hotel Verenahof (open from 1845 to 2002, a flash presentation from their website here) in Baden is where Hermann Hesse spent a couple of weeks every year for 30 years, visiting the thermal baths for therapy. Seems there was one particular set of rooms he rented each time and one could take a look in them up until the time the hotel closed down (link to a German article by a visitor in 2001).

Hesse spent the greater part of his life in Montagnola in Canton Ticino, where a museum has been created out of his house. Fondazione Hermann Hesse Montagnola (English and German versions available). Did you know that he painted watercolors? Go to the Gallery>Watercolors section on the website to browse through some of them.

It is wonderful to paint; it makes one happier and more patient. And when finished, fingers are not black like after writing, but red and blue.
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5 comments:

claude said...

Very interesting you post today.Beautiful building and I want to tell you that the oldest railway station is very beautiful too. I like to see the some architectures of others Countries.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

Cool-looking building! Very nice!

I'd LOVE to go to Switzerland!

Anonymous said...

I like the literary connections with Switzerlandand its hotels. I'm surprised to learn that Hesse settled in Ticino - seems at odds with the author of Steppenwolf which always seemed to me steeped in N Europe culture. I recently learned that another author, Joseph Roth stayed down the lake at Rapperswil, Hotel Schwanen while writing "The Radetzky March" one of my favourite books. And then Joyce in later years in the grand hotels of Banhofstrasse, Thomas Mann at the Dolder and Baur au Lac. These Swiss hotels have a lot to answer for

Fénix - Bostonscapes said...

Lovely photo and great post. Thank you for all the very interesting links. Loved to see his watercolors and drawings.

Z said...

Richard: When we went to visit his house/museum in Montagnola, I could scarcely believe that that's where he wrote books like Steppenwolf and Narziss und Goldmund. We were there in winter, the "bleakest" time of the year for that region, and it was stunning! You can see that in his paintings. How he transported himself into the dark and heavy worlds (which is the impression I got from the first parts of the translations that I did manage to get through) of those books, I don't know.

CH was (and is?) an attractive place for a lot of creative people. Lots of interesting bits and bobs as well, such as Arthur Conan Doyle staging the death of Sherlock Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls at the Aare Gorge in the Bernese Oberland.