Villa Wonka

For those of you who don't know the Villa Wonka: This abandoned villa used to be the home to the owner of a large chocolate factory in Eastern Germany - hence the name for the location.
The villa actually stands on the premises of the chocolate factory, but is to be looked at seperately since the accessibility of both spots differ a lot.
My wife and I went to the chocolate factory two days in a row, and on both days, there were people on the premises that were apparently renting space to use as a sort of auto repair shop.
On the first day, on which we had planned to visit the villa, we saw a couple of people at the gate of the villa as we were driving around the street corner. These people were using a rock to hit on the lock that was on the gate.
After we'd observed that, we first started our first (usnuccaessful) attempt at the chocolate factory, after which I went to the gate of the villa to find it open.
I went through the yard and into the villa. Since I didn't see anybody, I yelled "Hello!", and someone yelled "Hello!" back. A man came from one of the rooms and greeted me. I introduced myself and my wife and told them we were here to check out the villa and maybe take some photos and asked if he was the man to talk to.
He introduced himself - surprise! - as the new owner of the villa. The lady that was with him was his wife and there were two other men with him, one of which was introduced to us as "the architect".
The amn that had greeted us at the door said that he and his wife had bought the place and were aiming to renovate the whole thing and that it was totally okay if we took photos of the place.
As we were walking through the house, we overheard a lot of stuff they were planning to do, and they told us how much money they were planning to invest and that one of the reasons they were doing it was to send a signal for other people to invest in the city.

The villa itself was in a desolate state. In this hobby, you read and hear a lot about what people are planning to do with certain places, and then nothing happens.
But in this case, I am optimistic, because last I heard, the roof had been fixed, which was the most important thing, since the weather had done significant damage to the villa.
I am curious to see what happens in the future.


To find out more about the history of this abandoned villa and to check out all the photos from this great little spot, click the button below.