Rosa Lila Villa

The initiative to found the Villa comes from the squatter scene of the late 1970s and 80s and from the early lesbian and gay movement.[1] The house, which was scheduled for demolition, was squatted in 1982. After long negotiations with the owner and the deputy mayor of Vienna Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner, who supported the project, a contract was signed in 1984 for a 30-year lease,[1] even though homosexuality was still illegal in the country.[2]

The building was renovated with one part dedicated to a center for counseling homosexual and transgender people, and one part to communal apartments and catering.[3] The organization behind the Rosa Lila Villa worked on LGBT rights in Austria, among other things by working on education about HIV/AIDS.[4]

In 2016, the organisation opened a spin-off in the house that focused on LGBTIQ refugees, named Queer Base.[5] On the same year, the house was vandalized with a graffiti that said "Kill gays" (Tötet Schwule).[5] In 2017, queer Base received the Bruno Kreisky Prize for Services to Human Rights and the Alexander Friedmann Prize.[6][7]

In 2019, the restaurant was renamed to Villa Vida. The Villa is divided between the Lila Tip for lesbian counseling and the Türkis Rosa Tippp for transgender, gay and queer counseling.[3]