"ASYLUM"
Villa Schönberg, "Asylum” / Gablerstrasse 14.
28 April 1857 – 17 August 1858.
Instead of the Villa Schönberg, which can now be found in this place, there used to be a simple garden shed which Wagner inhabited from 1857 to 1858. He referred to this place as the “Asylum”. Following his wife Mathilde’s wish, Otto Wesendonck let the house opposite Villa Wesendonck to the composer to prevent the property being used as an asylum. There, Wagner composed besides “Siegfried” the first act in three parts of “Tristan und Isolde”, as well as the five poems of Mathilde Wesendonck, which would later be known as the "Wesendonck Songs". A bust of Wagner can be found beneath old Gingko trees as a reminder of the beginning of the modern age in Zurich.