Anton Bon
Anton Sebastian Bon (born April 5, 1854 in Ragaz , † January 24, 1915 in St. Moritz ) was a Swiss hotelier. He was one of the pioneers of Swiss tourism at the end of the 19th century.
As the son of the mayor and sawmaker Sebastian Bon von Ragaz, Anton Bon first attended high school in St. Gallen . He then completed an apprenticeship from 1873 to 1879 at the “Kur- und Quellenhotel”, whose owner, Bernhard Simon, was friends with the Bon family.
There he met his future wife, Maria Nigg (1854–1944). Together with Maria, he took over the management of the Hotel Bodenhaus in Splügen in 1879 . When the Gotthard tunnel was opened in 1882 , there were no travelers and the number of overnight stays fell. The vouchers moved to Central Switzerland, where they bought the “Rigi-First” luxury hotel, which was about to fail, and got it going again.
In 1892 the Bon in Vitznau bought and operated the "Pension Pfyffer" named after Pfyffer von Altishofen . Together with the architect Karl Koller , Bon traveled to Germany and England and studied the tastes of the rich industrialists and nobles of the time. In 1902/03 he converted the modest “Pension Pfyffer” into the elegant “Parkhotel Vitznau”. During this time, the richly rich South African diamond king Charles Sidney Goldmann (1868–1958) came to St. Moritz. Goldmann bought the private "Villa Suvretta" from the Englishman GSF Edwards near St. Moritz and bought the whole land down to the street from the farmer brothers Müller in Champfèr . Goldmann knew the “Parkhotel” in Vitznau and planned the construction of a luxury hotel with Anton Bon on his property and with his capital. Karl Koller was supposed to be the architect. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on April 22, 1911. On December 16, 1912, the inauguration took place with 200 invited guests.
Between 1890 and 1897 and from 1909 to 1915 Anton Bon was a member of the board of the Swiss Hotel Association . After Anton Bon's death in 1915, his wife Marie and later his son Hans Bon took over the management of the “Suvretta House” and the other family businesses.
Web links
- Silvio Margadant: Bon, Anton. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Anton Bon in "Die Zeit"
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bon, Anton |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bon, Anton Sebastian |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss hotelier |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 5, 1854 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ragaz |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 24, 1915 |
| Place of death | St. Moritz |