Eduard (Ede) Reiter Villa

Eduard (Ede) Reiter Villa was built at the end of the 19th century, sometime between 1871 (the year Eduard Reiter moved to Timișoara) and 1881 (the year the building first appears on a city map). It is very likely that the building dates from 1873, the year Reiter requests a construction permit.

The edifice stands out due to the hexagonal tower on the corner which ends in a roof finial with a weathervane (a decorative element made out of wrought iron which indicates the cardinal directions). Decorated with Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque elements typical for the architect’s stylistic repertoire, the villa is also remarkable for the contrast that exists between the skylights connected by an attic with balusters and the roof tiles of glazed ceramic. This particular detail was used again by Reiter on the Educational Ensemble of the Notre Dame Nuns in Iosefin.  

Analysing the building in the context of Anton Seiller Street (correclty “Anton Sailer” - the name “Anton Seiller” is a misspelling that appears, unfortunately, even in Timișoara’s record of streets) we can’t help but notice resemblances between this villa and neighbouring buildings: Ludmilla Lechner House and Emilia Reiter Villa. This is not merely a coincidence, as Eduard (Ede) Reiter is also the architect of those two edifices.

In 1899, the architect Eduard (Ede) Reiter was hired by the South Hungary Hat Factory Ltd to design the plans for their future building. The project was finalised in 1900 and was located across the street from the three villas on Anton Seiller Street. Thus the area became an architectural reservation for the creations of Eduard (Ede) Reiter. 

Eduard (Ede) Reiter, one of the most important architects of the end of the 19th century in Timișoara, was born on 16 March 1847, in Fünfhaus, near Vienna, and moved to Timișoara when he was 24. Although he didn’t have an architect diploma, this didn’t prevent him from designing a series of buildings that became representative for the city, such as the Educational Ensemble of the Notre Dame Nuns and the Savings Bank Palace in Iosefin, Miksa Steiner Apartment Building and Franz Anheuer Spartment Building in Fabric, the Palace of the former Sectorian Health House (currently the Romanian Railways Hospital Timișoara) of the former factory “Turul”.

Reiter was also the official construction advisor of the Cenad Diocese, a position which enabled him to design and work on the Diocese headquarters in Cetate neighbourhood (in 1902), as well as on numerous churches in the region: the Roman Catholic church in Vinga (1890-1892), Deta (1890-1892), Ciacova (1879-1881) and many others.