The imposing Neo-Renaissance villa, designed by the renowned Brussels architect Henri Cluysenaar, was built for the famous Belgian cello virtuoso Adrien-François Servais in the 1850s. Its elegant architecture with Italianate reminiscences is enriched by Godebski's numerous terracotta reliefs, making up a music-related iconographic programme that allows the Servais villa to be compared only at the time with Richard Wagner's Villa Wahnfried in Bayreuth.

Probably recommended in St Petersburg or Paris (where both Servais and Godebski often visited), the artist arrived in the Halls in 1865 (or perhaps already the year before). He soon married Sophie, Servais's daughter. The villa, where his family and periodically himself lived, was decorated by the sculptor with terracotta reliefs on the facades. On the façade of the house facing the town, Godebski realised a musical programme that included representations of instruments, allegories of Poetry and Music (with the names of past artists inscribed beside it: Gretry, J. Desprez, O. Di Lasso), bust images of Servais' favourite composers Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven (with the inscription 'Fidelio'), and medallions of Gioaccino Rossini, Giacomo Meyerbeer (the latter medallion destroyed). The arcade on the axis depicts a cello with the inscription 'Concerto per il violoncello', referring to the owner.

It is not known whether the decoration was personally executed by the sculptor and whether it is entirely his own. Mentions in family correspondence only generally specify his authorship. Godebski is also said to have decorated the interior of the villa, especially the entrance hall, used as a concert hall where the most eminent musicians of the period performed. However, nothing of this decoration has survived. The building remained neglected for a long time. In 2017, a major restoration was undertaken, with the intention of converting it into an exclusive hotel. The facade reliefs were also restored, while the Meyerbeer image was reconstructed by the conservator Linda Temmink.