- Joined
- Jan 20, 2014
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- 412
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- Location
- Kamp-Lintfort/Germany
- Website
- www.tomvandutch.de
Villa Moglia, built in the 17th century, is a large residential building surrounded by extensive farmland, just outside a small village. We drove on very narrow roads for ages to get to this place due to its fairly isolated location.
Unfortunately the villa is already pretty devastated and there are a lot of bad tags and graffiti. In some areas you can still see some beautiful details such as the decorative ceilings with hand-painted frescoes and artistic paintings.
The imposing structure extends over a total living area of more than 6,000 square meters - surrounded by a huge park of another 30,000 square meters.
The history of the villa began with the appearance of a visionary teacher who married a wealthy local woman and, with the help of her fortune, bought the land on which the future Villa Moglia was to be located.
There he first set up a spinning mill and also promoted the cultivation of mulberry trees, which were used to raise and feed the silkworms, which in turn supplied the silk for the spinning mill. Mainly children worked in the factory, because spinning was easy to learn, required little muscle strength, but a lot of manual dexterity. In addition, the children could be paid with a third of an adult's income. It was a terrible life full of toil, suffering and great danger from the huge machines to which some fell victim. Even today, many a visitor to Villa Moglia swear to have seen the ghosts of the children who worked in the old factory.
After all, it was the teacher's grandson who came up with the idea of turning the textile factory into a noble residence by having a pompous villa built around the spinning mill by a famous Turin architect. Although the grandson was married twice, he had no heirs, which is why the dynasty of the noble family came to an end with his death.
At the end of the 19th century, Villa Moglia was bought up on a whim by a count, who, however, only showed interest in it for a short time and therefore passed it on to one of his employees. With no money and unable to manage such a large building, he sold anything that was of any value.
The imposing building stood empty for a long time - and the ravages of time have been gnawing at its walls ever since.
Unfortunately the villa is already pretty devastated and there are a lot of bad tags and graffiti. In some areas you can still see some beautiful details such as the decorative ceilings with hand-painted frescoes and artistic paintings.
The imposing structure extends over a total living area of more than 6,000 square meters - surrounded by a huge park of another 30,000 square meters.
The history of the villa began with the appearance of a visionary teacher who married a wealthy local woman and, with the help of her fortune, bought the land on which the future Villa Moglia was to be located.
There he first set up a spinning mill and also promoted the cultivation of mulberry trees, which were used to raise and feed the silkworms, which in turn supplied the silk for the spinning mill. Mainly children worked in the factory, because spinning was easy to learn, required little muscle strength, but a lot of manual dexterity. In addition, the children could be paid with a third of an adult's income. It was a terrible life full of toil, suffering and great danger from the huge machines to which some fell victim. Even today, many a visitor to Villa Moglia swear to have seen the ghosts of the children who worked in the old factory.
After all, it was the teacher's grandson who came up with the idea of turning the textile factory into a noble residence by having a pompous villa built around the spinning mill by a famous Turin architect. Although the grandson was married twice, he had no heirs, which is why the dynasty of the noble family came to an end with his death.
At the end of the 19th century, Villa Moglia was bought up on a whim by a count, who, however, only showed interest in it for a short time and therefore passed it on to one of his employees. With no money and unable to manage such a large building, he sold anything that was of any value.
The imposing building stood empty for a long time - and the ravages of time have been gnawing at its walls ever since.
Nice set of photos though, cheers for sharing!
