Tradition

The private Club Baur au Lac, founded in 1970, is a particularly distinguished institution calling the stylish premises of the Villa Rosau it’s home. In 1970, the French architect Henri Samuel designed the noble interior of the villa, which offered the approximately 450 members from all over the world an exclusive refuge until 2016.

The classicist villa, built in 1843 by at that time prestigious architect Ferdinand Stadler, is considered to be one of the most beautiful patrician houses in Zurich. Stadler was commissioned by the silk ribbon manufacturer Johann Rudolf Forcart-Hoffmann, who had the villa planned as a guest house.

Later the renowned chemist Dr. Charles Wunderly with his wife will call the noble domicile on Lake Zurich their home. Both will excel as patrons and leave their mark as founders of the Meilen open-air theater.

So much science and art were followed by years of pure business: Union Rückversicherung made the villa its place of business from which to determine its fate for almost two decades.

But with the globally acclaimed opening of the Marlborough Gallery on the upper floor – at the time rated as a “big step towards a world of art for Zurich” – the very big names of the art scene will adorn the walls of the villa and the green of their park. And while pictures and sculptures by Francis Bacon, Henry Moore and Jackson Pollack (to name just a few representatives) are exhibited, the Club Baur au Lac, which was then based on the British model of the Gentlemen’s Club, is founded, with which the Villa Rosau has found it’s permanent determination to this day.