Heimatschutzzentrum in der Villa Patumbah

This guide to the Heimatschutzzentrum in der Villa Patumbah in Zurich follows Carl Fürchtegott Grob, a Zurich baker's son who left for Sumatra in 1869 and came home a decade later having built a fortune on tobacco rather than bread. It traces his partnership with Hermann Näher on Sumatra's east coast, the labor conditions researchers later uncovered on the plantation, and the villa Grob built in 1885 to house the wealth and the fantasies it bought. Look for the fountain of clam shells carried back from the Indo-Pacific as you approach the entrance.