Villa Winter

Photo by flickr user rbrands

On a remote ‘off the beaten’ dust track this villa is the subject of conspiracy theories WAY beyond its size or statue. The two simple floors, tower and wide balcony were built in 1946, a copy of a villa built in the Black Forest in 1893, by Gustav Winter, an engineer and its eeiry reputation began not long after it was built – out here, in the middle of nowhere, just under the mountains… It’s supposed to be built on a plot of land with the same proportions as the whole island, and then the house is on the same position relative to the grounds as it is to the island’s overall layout – but Winter was an engineer remember.

It didn’t help that soon after the ‘summer house’ was built it was fortified and guarded by armed guards and dogs and a runway was constructed. Rumours of digging under the building or of it being used as a prison began to circulate, but these days the most popular theory is that it was a safe house used to transport Nazis into the US or out of Europe when the going was getting tough in the Second World War. They supposedly came in via submarine up the coast and left by plane. It may have even had a plastic surgery clinic in its cellar to change the features of top Nazi brass.

Elements of the build are slightly suspicious - the tower has an excellent view of the harbour which is run under with lava tunnels and of the air space around the villa despite the mountains behind it, and there is fuse box suitable for far more power than the villa would have needed - but the family deny everything.

Written by  World Reviewer Staff.

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