In Spain, but especially, Asturias there’s something called “casas de indianos”. They’re the houses of former emigrants who went to America in search of Fortune, found It and then came back. They’re often quite out of place, with vivid colours, towers and balconies. They had modern amenities (in sometimes very rural areas) and often lucious gardens with exotic plants.
Here are some examples:
emigration museum: https://www.larazon.es/viajes/20200716/micablelwfdh7i5xtlyfoyejm4.html?outputType=amp
Villa rosario hotel: https://img3.viajar.elperiodico.com/65/c3/c4/shutterstock_1469070863-650×433.jpg
Palacete de peñalba: https://www.hoteles-asturias.es/hoteles-4-estrellas/c/0/i/53515080/hotel-palacete-penalba
I was wondering if there was something similar elsewhere in Europe. Large badges of wealthy emigrants who came back and built somewhat alien-looking buildings.
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Just a heads up: “estrambotic” isn’t a word in English. I guess you could say “out of place”? Not sure, my Spanish isn’t good enough.
Unfortunately I can’t find information online about how many migrants to the US eventually came back to the UK, but out of the 1.5 million who came to Australia after WW2 under the Ten Pound Pom scheme, around 250,000 eventually returned, and most of those people were people who ended up dissatisfied with living in Australia. As far as I know, not a lot of people planned to migrate temporarily, emigration was expensive and if they were successful in their new life, they were more likely not to return.
The closest I can think of is [Brighton Palace](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Pavilion?wprov=sfla1), a royal seaside retreat that was built to mimic palaces in India.
Actually, yes.
In the canton of Graubünden, people used to go emigrate for jobs as well, and the returners built pretty houses.
In the village Poschiavo, there is a street called the *Palazzi*, which are villas from the 19th century in a neoclassicist style. Luckily, the owners and the village president arranged that they all be in masching style and not completely at random.
In the Engadine valley, traditional houses are plastered and painted white, and the paint is scratched away in some places to make patterns and designs. These are often traditional patterns, but sometimes they imitate a baroque or neoclassicist façade, like here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byre-dwelling#/media/File%3AArdez_Aual_131.JPG and I suppose this was brought in by people who saw these façades in Italy or elsewhere.
I have seen a surprising similar case in France, namely in Barcelonnette, a charming little town in the Alps. In the XIXth century, two brothers emigrated to Mexico and launched a very successfull business. They attracted residents of their region, who would spend some years in Mexico and then would come back to their hometown. They would then have villas built around 1880-1900, in a mixture of different styles and locals called them “Mexican villas”. They still exist today and are very nice sights.
Yes we have something similar but not rich people coming back from US. (These are mostly hockey players displaying wealth by buying expensive cars and crashing them later).
We have so called “business owners baroque”. People got rich in early 90ies were building crazy buildings. Architectonic wise it does not resemble anything else then “let’s use every single feature this planning software has”.
Keyword to google: podnikatelské baroko
Finland: Not as such, but there is a house type that’s quite common and has an interesting story: after WWII, the government decided to grant everyone who served, a mortgage. The mortage came complete with instructions on how to build a house. This house type is called [rintamamiestalo](https://www.magneettimedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/rintamamiestalo.jpg?t=123) (front line man’s house), and there are still plenty of them around.
Almost every coastal town in Catalonia also features them, owing to the “fortunes” they harnessed mostly through profiting from slave trade and exploiting the lucrative plantations in Cuba:
[Canet de Mar](https://www.municipisindians.cat/media/items/big/eb68d-Alsina-Roig_canet.jpg), [Begur](https://www.moventis.es/sites/moventis/files/imce/begur_y_sus_casas_coloniales.jpg), [Masnou](https://www.femturisme.cat/_fotos/agenda/main/itinerari-el-masnou-terra-de-mar.jpg), [Premià de Mar](https://premiamedia.cat/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Vilassar-de-Mar-cases-indians-777×434.jpg), [Vilassar de Mar](https://www.municipisindians.cat/media/items/big/1282e-Carrer-StPau.JPG), [Sitges](https://www.municipisindians.cat/media/items/medium/4c066-Facana-Francesc-Guma-23_07.JPG), [Santa Coloma de Gramenet](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Can_Roig_i_Torres.jpg) and a long etc.
These houses were the predecessors of Catalan modernisme, the local variation on Art Noveau that Gaudí, Doménech i Muntaner and others practiced.
A lot of big estates, manor houses, castles and other buildings are linked to people involved in empire and colonialism, if you’re ever in Glasgow the museum of modern art was originally a house built by a tobacco merchant called William Cunninghame. There are many other buildings linked to these tobacco barons but I can’t think of an ‘oriental’ style building off the top of my head.
Ah yes! The famed Southern Italian architectural landmark: the unfinished house.
Smalltown guy goes to work abroad (Germany or Switzerland), then builds one or two floors back home without any permit – adding a few more floors later if need be, leaving the rebar pointing to the sky as a testament to his prowess. No paint or plaster anywhere for the real deal.