Zurich’s ‘Villa Rienzi’: A Newly Discovered Picture of Wagner’s Lakeside Home

Wagner's home in Zurich from 1850 to 1851, the Abendstern, nicknamed by him and his friends the 'Villa Rienzi' has long been something of a mystery and was believed to have been torn down in the later 19th century. Only now has a contemporary painting been discovered that reveals a remarkable similarity between the Abendstern and Wagner's later house in Tribschen, suggesting that the latter was perhaps chosen in part because it reminded him of the former. It transpires that the Abendstern was renovated several times, but was only torn down in 1962.