Villa René Lalique
René Lalique built this house in 1920 to live beside the glassworks he was raising in the northern Vosges. A century on, the villa is where his name is still lived in, not just displayed.
At a glance
René Lalique (1860–1945), the jeweller and glass designer whose name became a style, built the villa in 1920 as his personal residence in Wingen-sur-Moder, the Alsatian village where his new production facility was then under construction. He stayed here on his visits to the factory, and after his death the house remained in the family, used by his son Marc and granddaughter Marie-Claude. In 2015, under Lalique chairman Silvio Denz, the villa reopened as a five-star hotel of six suites with a restaurant that won two Michelin stars in 2016, three months after opening. It has been a Relais & Châteaux member since 2016.
Key facts
- Built: 1920, as René Lalique’s personal residence in Alsace
- The glassworks: work on the Wingen-sur-Moder facility began in 1919; it opened in 1921 and remains Lalique’s manufacture
- Reborn: 2015, as a 5-star hotel and restaurant; renovation led by Lalique chairman Silvio Denz
- Design: interiors by Lady Tina Green and Pietro Mingarelli; restaurant and wine cellar by the Swiss architect Mario Botta
- Table and cellar: two Michelin stars since 2016; chef Paul Stradner; head sommelier Romain Iltis (Best Sommelier of France 2012, Meilleur Ouvrier de France 2015), cellar of more than 12,000 bottles
- Suites: six, each themed on a Lalique motif — Rose, Dragon, Zeila, Hirondelles, Masque de Femme, Dahlia
- Address: Rue Bellevue, 67290 Wingen-sur-Moder, Bas-Rhin
History
By 1919 René Lalique was already the most famous name in French glass, and he was building a new production facility in Wingen-sur-Moder, deep in the wooded hills of the northern Vosges. The villa followed in 1920, a comfortable half-timbered house on rising ground near the works. It was not a showpiece. It was the place he stayed when he came to watch over the factory, which opened in 1921 as the Verrerie d’Alsace and was renamed Cristallerie Lalique in 1962.
Lalique died in 1945, and the house passed quietly down the family line. His son Marc, who led the crystal works after him, used it on his own visits, as did Marc’s daughter Marie-Claude, the third generation of Lalique designers. For nearly a century the villa remained what it had always been: the private house of the family whose furnaces burned a few minutes away.
The transformation came under Silvio Denz, chairman of Lalique since 2008, who set out to keep the character of the house while opening it to guests. Lady Tina Green and Pietro Mingarelli, designers of the Lalique Maison furniture collections, shaped the interiors; the Swiss architect Mario Botta designed the new restaurant pavilion and the wine cellar. The villa reopened in 2015, and in February 2016 the restaurant took two Michelin stars.
What you see
From the garden, the villa still reads as a 1920s Alsatian country house: steep roofs, timber framing, stone base, the scale domestic rather than grand. The glass is where the house declares itself. Each of the six suites is built around one Lalique motif — Rose, Dragon, Zeila, Hirondelles, Masque de Femme, Dahlia — so the crystal is not decoration added to a room but the idea the room grows from.
Botta’s restaurant sits beside the house as a deliberate contrast, a modern pavilion whose glazed wall turns the forest into the dining room’s fourth side. Below it, the cellar holds more than 12,000 bottles in over 200 square metres of stone and shadow. The villa works as a single argument: what Lalique drew in glass a century ago can still be inhabited.
Practical information
- The house operates as a six-suite hotel with a two-Michelin-star restaurant; booking ahead is essential for both.
- Opening days and seasonal closures vary; check the official site before planning a visit.
- The restaurant and cellar can be part of a visit without an overnight stay, subject to reservation.
Getting there
Wingen-sur-Moder lies in the Saverne arrondissement of the Bas-Rhin, in the wooded country of the northern Vosges north-west of Strasbourg. The villa stands on rising ground at the edge of the village, on Rue Bellevue.
Nearby
- Musée Lalique, Wingen-sur-Moder — the museum devoted to René Lalique and his successors, opened in 2011 in the same village as the glassworks.
Sources
Find it on the map
See this place and what’s around it →📷 Diventa un fotografo di Cultural Heritage Online
Condividi le tue foto dei luoghi: restano pubblicate con la tua firma come autore. Più vengono viste, più ti fai conoscere — e presto un concorso premierà le foto più apprezzate.
Accedi o registrati gratis per aggiungere una fotoDo you manage this place?
This page is read by travellers and heritage enthusiasts who find it on Google. Keep it accurate — and make it work for you. Free for non-profit heritage institutions.