Porsche’s private tunnel splits Salzburg
A few years ago, Wolfgang Porsche bought « Villa Zweig », a pompous home known for the city’s great son, author Stefan Zweig, staying there in the 1920s.
Zweig must have loved the house up at the height just because it was so inaccessible, but Porsche looks differently at the matter. He wants to supplement the villa with half a kilometer long car tunnel into the mountain, and an underground garage with room for at least ten vehicles.
Former rulers in Salzburg have given green light to the idea, but now the protests are growing. Flyers with a call to « stop Porsche’s private tunnel » are spread in the city. Activist Tobi Rosswog says, according to the APA news agency, that it exclaims a « tunnel party » that will constitute « stage for the protests against this grotesque project ».
The tunnel is expected to cost over SEK 100 million, which is more than Porsche paid for the house in 2020. He intends to pay the building himself, but it is still seen as unfair. « When someone has money, the city acts, but when it comes to expanding public transport, everything is suddenly more difficult, » writes another critic, Nicol Makula, According to The Wall Street Journal.
The now 81-year-old Wolfgang Porsche is the son of « Ferry » Porsche, who in turn was the son of the car manufacturer’s founder Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951).
