Villa Strauss was the home of conductor Isaac Strauss (1806-1888), director both of the Tuileries Balls, and of the salons at Vichy's thermal establishment between 1844 and 1860.
He also played a role in promoting the resort, even before the arrival of Napoleon III, while composing more than 400 dance works.
This villa, built by the architect Hugues-Annet Batilliat in 1858, and considered one of the most beautiful in Vichy at the time, was rented furnished as an imperial residence during the Emperor's first two spa treatments, in 1861 and 1862. In the garden at the rear of the villa, there was a pond that attracted frogs whose croaking disturbed the imperial sleep. This led to the Moulins horticulturist Joseph Marie being called on to intervene: in just one night, he managed to fill in the entire pond and replace it with a flowerbed. The Emperor, impressed and grateful, then chose Joseph Marie to plant the trees, flowers and vegetation in the park planned on the banks of the Allier.
In 1868, the villa was sold to a doctor, eventually being annexed to the neighbouring Hôtel Thermal in 1921. Occupied by the French General Secretariat and the National Council during the Second World War, from 1946 it housed the Villa Strauss Club, with a library, bridge salons, reading, and letter-writing rooms, before finally being converted into a restaurant.
Rates
Free access.
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Openings
All year 2026 - Open everyday
