At the turn of the century, the Cologne-based entrepreneur Rudolf Hagen was looking for a suitable place for his family’s summer holidays. In Unkel-Scheuren, on the sunny side of the Rhine, the house-hunting came to a successful conclusion. He had a late-classical villa built next to Saint Joseph’s Chapel. There he spent many happy summers with his wife, children, dog and their housekeeper.

Some 130 years later, after many cruel changes to the beautiful classical design of the building, the villa became a drinks warehouse and barely survived arson.