Hotel Bellevue Palace

About the building

Walking east from the Federal Palace, you reach a pale grand hotel on Kochergasse whose back stands on the edge of the slope above the Aare. Corinthian columns structure the south and east façades, the rounded south-east corner acts as the centre of the whole building, and above the third floor come a cornice, an attic storey and a mansard roof. A wide glass canopy covers the entrance on the north side.

The history of the house begins in 1864. That year the landlord of the "Falken" inn bought two properties on what was then Inselgasse and had a hotel built there, naming it after the nearby "Bellevue" viewpoint. His first name is given differently: Carl Osswald according to the German Wikipedia, Friedrich Osswald according to the hotel's own chronicle. The old Bellevue opened in 1865 with 110 beds. In 1871 General Bourbaki stayed here, whose French army had shortly before found refuge in Switzerland and been disarmed.

In 1911 the founder's sons set up a joint-stock company, bought the neighbouring houses and had the old hotel demolished from 1 November. Paul Lindt and Max Hoffmann were commissioned to plan the new building, twice the size of the old one; the Structurae database spells the second name "Hofmann". Construction began on 1 March 1912 with a reinforced-concrete frame, according to the hotel the first hotel in Switzerland built entirely in this material. The shell was finished by the end of November 1912, and the hotel opened on 27 November 1913.

Holiday guests did not have it to themselves for long: from August 1914 the house served General Ulrich Wille and the general staff as headquarters. During the Second World War it stayed open and became a meeting place for politicians, diplomats and journalists; according to Wikipedia, guests from Allied countries sat in one half of the restaurant and guests from the Axis powers in the other. In 1976 the Swiss National Bank acquired the majority of the shares so that the hotel would not go to foreign investors. Later it gave the hotel to the Confederation, in 1994 according to the hotel and the English Wikipedia, in 1995 according to the German Wikipedia.

Today the Bellevue Palace is the Confederation's guesthouse for heads of state and government, and members of parliament also stay here during the sessions. During the renovation of 2002 the number of rooms fell from 230 to 130. Standing in front of the house, look at the rounded south-east corner: it shows how close to the edge above the Aare valley the building was placed.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Wikipedia (de): Hotel Bellevue Palace · Wikipedia (en): Hotel Bellevue Palace · Hotel Bellevue Palace: The Bellevue Chronicle · Structurae: Max Hofmann · Wikidata: Q1395561