Villa Verboten (IT) - July '23

a.k.a “Villa Boat” because there was previously a boat in there. It’s not there anymore. We’ve been urbexing Germany most summers for the past decade of so, so have been faced with many ‘Verboten’ (forbidden) signs. Hence the villa has been renamed!





I couldn’t find any history on the place at all.







But it’s a large manor, right in the centre of the village. Mature trees (and brambles) cover the site.









This was a bit weird, right on the landing at the top of the stairs…



The trees were thick with cicadas, screaming away, all in time, giving a surround sound effect from up high.









At least it masked our noises… mainly gasps of surprise as each room revealed itself to us.













Thanks for reading:

Nice photos. The art work in this building is stunning. A pity you couldn't find any history on this place.

Sam Haltin said:

Nice photos. The art work in this building is stunning. A pity you couldn't find any history on this place.

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Annoyingly the name of the village is also a very popular Italian word, which has made the history hunt even harder!

Another example of what I call 'gentle decay'. How old is the building? The outside is very plain compared with what is inside: the ceiling decoration, the friezes around the tops of the walls in the rooms, and the frieze following the
staircase. I was told the term 'storey' for a level in a building came from friezes that 'told stories' in the form of a sequence of images; think of the Bayeux tapestry.

The loo on the upper landing was perhaps for the servants who lived
at the top of the house. Was it flushed with a bucket of water brought up for that purpose?

The WC in the bathroom has the typical high-level cast-iron cistern; and the pipes to and from it - as with the pipes to the removed taps for the bath - are buried in the wall. Were the taps taken for their brass value? Is that why the basin taps are gone, and the basin is lying on the floor? What is in the alcove opposite the WC? A shower? With a tile floor, splashed water would have been no problem.

A good set of photos - bringing out the character of the place. How old?
Perhaps around 1880 or 1900? The bath may be a bit later; is it also cast iron?
That it is cased in, with what look to be the same tiles on the walls, suggests
a degree of elegance matched by the friezes and the ceiling motifs.

What lighting was there? I see there is what looks to be a twisted electric
wire on the wall of the upper exterior landing; and in the lower rooms there are what appear to be wires coming down the walls from the ceilings to hand height, as if for switches or plugs.

That the building has not been interfered with is a bit surprsing. But if it is
"right in the centre of the village", that would give it some protection. And the
ceiling paintings look more Italian than German. Still, a very enjoyable half hour spent looking at - and 'interpreting' the photos. Thank you.

Another lovely bit of architecture

Superb set as always fella even if you were 3 days late on arrival

Hayman said:

How old is the building? The outside is very plain compared with what is inside:

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No idea TBH, yes it was very plain from the outside! It has a 'drive through' coach house fronting the road which was equally as plain. Weirdly the power was on in there too?!

Hayman said:

The loo on the upper landing was perhaps for the servants who lived
at the top of the house. Was it flushed with a bucket of water brought up for that purpose?

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I didn't see any flush mechanism, yeah.. I wouldn't want that on my landing tho...

Hayman said:

What lighting was there? I see there is what looks to be a twisted electric wire on the wall of the upper exterior landing; and in the lower rooms there are what appear to be wires coming down the walls from the ceilings to hand height, as if for switches or plugs.

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Yes it would have been all wall lighting, there were quite a few wall points, but all of the fittings have been long removed. Maybe a lot of lamps too? I imagine those ceilings would have looked spectacular uplit of an evening!

Hayman said:

And the ceiling paintings look more Italian than German.

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This is in Italy - Apologies if the name was misleading, it was a pun based on how much German exploring we've done over the last decade!

UrbanX said:

No idea TBH, yes it was very plain from the outside! It has a 'drive through' coach house fronting the road which was equally as plain. Weirdly the power was on in there too?!


I didn't see any flush mechanism, yeah.. I wouldn't want that on my landing tho...


Yes it would have been all wall lighting, there were quite a few wall points, but all of the fittings have been long removed. Maybe a lot of lamps too? I imagine those ceilings would have looked spectacular uplit of an evening!


This is in Italy - Apologies if the name was misleading, it was a pun based on how much German exploring we've done over the last decade!

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Thanks for the info that it is in Italy. My sense of place was correct! You say there was electric power on in the coach house. Did you take any photos of any fittings that were still there? Were there any names or initials on any switches, fuse boxes, etc? As I said, in the picture of the outside landing, there appears to be a twisted flex attached to the wall at regular intervals, as if for lighting.

My guess at 1880 to 1900 for the age of the place comes from the large house that was my main childhood home in Devon, England. It still had one gas light in use when we moved in around 1951. And the electric wiring - for power sockets and lighting - was a mixture of the original single wires with rubber and cotton covering laid under the floor and in the attic in long lengths of deeply grooved wood with thin wood covers, lead-covered rubber-sheathed cables and some more recent black rubber covered cables (TRS - tough rubber sheathed).

I take it that the village did not have gas mains to it, so the house would not have had gas lights. A farm I stayed at in Devon in the 1950s had no mains electricity or gas; and the farmer and his family used paraffin/kerosene lamps.
for all their lighting.

I'd have said the villa was older, based on architechtural features, with things like plumbing and gas and electricity added when it was still occupied. the bathroom looks as if it was installed in what may have been a dressing room or linen closet. the loo on the landing is fascinating! I'm inclined to think that likely to be a fairly early feature, and I suspect it was also used for emptying the chamber pots of the grand family every morning. If it's in northern Italy, I have an Italian friend near Turin who might be able to find out more, she's a keen historical researcher and family historian.

Sweet, such amazing artwork just left to rot

Sarah Waldock said:

I'd have said the villa was older, based on architechtural features, with things like plumbing and gas and electricity added when it was still occupied. the bathroom looks as if it was installed in what may have been a dressing room or linen closet. the loo on the landing is fascinating! I'm inclined to think that likely to be a fairly early feature, and I suspect it was also used for emptying the chamber pots of the grand family every morning. If it's in northern Italy, I have an Italian friend near Turin who might be able to find out more, she's a keen historical researcher and family Therian.

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The 1880-built house in Devon that was my main childhood home - I've mentioned before that my parents made it into a guest house - had two bathrooms; one for the family and one mainly for the servants. Although there was only one upstairs loo, and that was opposite the second bathroom.

The first bathroom was adjacent to the master bedroom and had two doors: one from the landing; the other to the dressing room that also had a door to the master bedroom. The bath in this first bedroom had its taps halfway along one side of the bath - just as can be seen in the photo of the bathroom here.

My parents had wash-basins fitted in all the guest bedrooms, which meant minimal alterations to the structure of the house.

Yes, the house might well be from an earlier era - noting the styles of decoration. If the loo in the picture is on the landing at the top of the first flight of stairs - making it on the first floor which would have held the main bedrooms - then it may have been the loo used at night time by the family, or just somewhere to empty the chamber pots. Do not forget, it was standard practice in the 1700s-1800s to have a chamber pot under any bed - for poo as well as pee. And probably there had been an outside loo on the ground floor - another normal thing. My father-in-law's Victorian house in Buckinghamshire had only one loo (no bathroom at all) when my wife grew up there, and that was at the bottom of the garden; the loo for our first floor London maisonette (1890s) was on the open balcony (by 1980 roofed in) at the rear.

Hayman said:

The 1880-built house in Devon that was my main childhood home - I've mentioned before that my parents made it into a guest house - had two bathrooms; one for the family and one mainly for the servants. Although there was only one upstairs loo, and that was opposite the second bathroom.

The first bathroom was adjacent to the master bedroom and had two doors: one from the landing; the other to the dressing room that also had a door to the master bedroom. The bath in this first bedroom had its taps halfway along one side of the bath - just as can be seen in the photo of the bathroom here.

My parents had wash-basins fitted in all the guest bedrooms, which meant minimal alterations to the structure of the house.

Yes, the house might well be from an earlier era - noting the styles of decoration. If the loo in the picture is on the landing at the top of the first flight of stairs - making it on the first floor which would have held the main bedrooms - then it may have been the loo used at night time by the family, or just somewhere to empty the chamber pots. Do not forget, it was standard practice in the 1700s-1800s to have a chamber pot under any bed - for poo as well as pee. And probably there had been an outside loo on the ground floor - another normal thing. My father-in-law's Victorian house in Buckinghamshire had only one loo (no bathroom at all) when my wife grew up there, and that was at the bottom of the garden; the loo for our first floor London maisonette (1890s) was on the open balcony (by 1980 roofed in) at the rear.

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The cottage where I was born in 1965 had an indoorish loo in a loggia my father had put in a couple of years before, prior to that, it was down the garden to a double dweller, so chamber pots overnight were a necessity... the running water was a pump in the kitchen. It had been a manse to a Methodist chapel. We take a lot for granted, these days! Urban X, I'd like your permission, please, to use the photo of the loo, obviously accredited, if I ever get around to a book on the history of loos, I've never seen one like it!

Sarah Waldock said:

The cottage where I was born in 1965 had an indoorish loo in a loggia my father had put in a couple of years before, prior to that, it was down the garden to a double dweller, so chamber pots overnight were a necessity... the running water was a pump in the kitchen. It had been a manse to a Methodist chapel. We take a lot for granted, these days! Urban X, I'd like your permission, please, to use the photo of the loo, obviously accredited, if I ever get around to a book on the history of loos, I've never seen one like it!

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Thanks for confirming how things were in those days. A couple of years after I had met my father-in-law, I converted a bedroom in his house to a bathroom;
fitting a bath, basin and loo. Also gas central heating, with the boiler heating the radiators and the hot water. Before that, as a long time widower, he had had a strip wash in the kitchen, and had used the outside loo. I'm sure the water from the pump tasted better than chlorinated mains water!

Hayman said:

Thanks for confirming how things were in those days. A couple of years after I had met my father-in-law, I converted a bedroom in his house to a bathroom;
fitting a bath, basin and loo. Also gas central heating, with the boiler heating the radiators and the hot water. Before that, as a long time widower, he had had a strip wash in the kitchen, and had used the outside loo. I'm sure the water from the pump tasted better than chlorinated mains water!

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the water from the pump in our little cottage certainly beat out hard Ipswich mains water every time! here, the bathroom was put into the dressing-room [posey git, the builder who built it for himself] in 1931, as elderly neighbours told my parents when we moved here, the other loo was outside but part of the house - you had to go out into the conservatory.
now with regards to the cottage in a small north suffolk town, on the perpendicular street were houses dating to the late 1600s, and according to my great grandmother, they shared a toilet block attached to a wash-house with a big brick copper where all the neighbourhood - 8 households, i believe - did their washing on Mondays. She moved round the corner into the cottage I mentioned in 1933 when she was widowed and was glad of a one-household loo! I believe toilets were added to the other individual houses after the war. the two cottages down the lane from our cottage were single storey with loft space, shared an outside toilet, and were pulled down as insanitory some time in the 1970s I think; I remember them, though, as we used to go back for a yearly holiday.

Sarah Waldock said:

the water from the pump in our little cottage certainly beat out hard Ipswich mains water every time! here, the bathroom was put into the dressing-room [posey git, the builder who built it for himself] in 1931, as elderly neighbours told my parents when we moved here, the other loo was outside but part of the house - you had to go out into the conservatory.
now with regards to the cottage in a small north suffolk town, on the perpendicular street were houses dating to the late 1600s, and according to my great grandmother, they shared a toilet block attached to a wash-house with a big brick copper where all the neighbourhood - 8 households, i believe - did their washing on Mondays. She moved round the corner into the cottage I mentioned in 1933 when she was widowed and was glad of a one-household loo! I believe toilets were added to the other individual houses after the war. the two cottages down the lane from our cottage were single storey with loft space, shared an outside toilet, and were pulled down as insanitory some time in the 1970s I think; I remember them, though, as we used to go back for a yearly holiday.

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What a rounded picture you paint of that north Suffolk town. My parents put the water from the pump outside the back door of the 1880s house on the tables for the guests to drink at meal times. And they remarked at its clean taste.

Hayman said:

What a rounded picture you paint of that north Suffolk town. My parents put the water from the pump outside the back door of the 1880s house on the tables for the guests to drink at meal times. And they remarked at its clean taste.

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I miss the pump water. They pulled it out and put a loo on the back landing - very cramped! when it was sold when my great aunt, who owned it, died. We had the chance to go over it, and it was disappointinly characterless. the cupboard over the stairs which had a rough wall to give a cupboard each into the master bedrooms had been turned into an office, and the blocked off window unblocked - that was a decent change - but the big, cold, work-in pantry had become a bathroom, no more marble slab for making pastry on, with a drawer for flour underneath it. The loggia was gone. My older siblings used to climb out of the window in my sister's bedroom onto its flat roof and down the drainpipe to go out to get illicit fish and chips when we lived there, being much older than me. I also miss lying in bed listening to the campanologists practising on the ring of ten in the big separate bell tower to St. Michaels. The church stands on old rivercliffs, where once Vikings sailed up the Waveney, raiding, leaving their language in the form of the use of 'gaet' for sundry streets. I think of it on the odd occasion the wind is in the right direction to hear St Mary le Tower in Ipswich. the sound of church bells takes me right back to idyllic summers which were always sunny - or seemed so! and carefree games in the watermeadows.

Sarah Waldock said:

I miss the pump water. They pulled it out and put a loo on the back landing - very cramped! when it was sold when my great aunt, who owned it, died. We had the chance to go over it, and it was disappointinly characterless. the cupboard over the stairs which had a rough wall to give a cupboard each into the master bedrooms had been turned into an office, and the blocked off window unblocked - that was a decent change - but the big, cold, work-in pantry had become a bathroom, no more marble slab for making pastry on, with a drawer for flour underneath it. The loggia was gone. My older siblings used to climb out of the window in my sister's bedroom onto its flat roof and down the drainpipe to go out to get illicit fish and chips when we lived there, being much older than me. I also miss lying in bed listening to the campanologists practising on the ring of ten in the big separate bell tower to St. Michaels. The church stands on old rivercliffs, where once Vikings sailed up the Waveney, raiding, leaving their language in the form of the use of 'gaet' for sundry streets. I think of it on the odd occasion the wind is in the right direction to hear St Mary le Tower in Ipswich. the sound of church bells takes me right back to idyllic summers which were always sunny - or seemed so! and carefree games in the watermeadows.

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Ah yes - those sunny summers of long ago! "marble slab"? Luxury! All we 'ad was slate. When I slept in my grandparents' house in Staverton, Devon, I could hear the trains whistling at Totnes, three miles away.

Hayman said:

Ah yes - those sunny summers of long ago! "marble slab"? Luxury! All we 'ad was slate. When I slept in my grandparents' house in Staverton, Devon, I could hear the trains whistling at Totnes, three miles away.

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My great grandfather was a master baker - it came out of his shop! it was a treat to work on. I wish we could have brought it here, I expect someone broke it up for a rockery. I do have the marble top of a washhandstand which came from a junk shop, though. very nice; the wood part succumbed to woodworm.

Sarah Waldock said:

My great grandfather was a master baker - it came out of his shop! it was a treat to work on. I wish we could have brought it here, I expect someone broke it up for a rockery. I do have the marble top of a washhandstand which came from a junk shop, though. very nice; the wood part succumbed to woodworm.

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I worked for a firm that renovated cafes as part of its business; and it imported Italian marble for the longer counter tops. Usually some two inches thick and two feet wide. It was often black with a few flecks of white, but HEAVY !!

Hayman said:

I worked for a firm that renovated cafes as part of its business; and it imported Italian marble for the longer counter tops. Usually some two inches thick and two feet wide. It was often black with a few flecks of white, but HEAVY !!

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nice... this was a white marble, though much that size. my wash stand top is white, too, and it is seriously heavy. And I have the once broken toe which still aches in bad weather to attest to it. the washstand quietly collapsed in a pile of dust under it... taking half my photographic developing kit with it, I used to keep my enlarger on it and all my gear in the cupboard before I moved largely to digital. Now the top comes out of storage for serious bakery. otherwise I work on glass that's been cooled in cold water. I might take pastry a bit too seriously lol....