Grand Hotel des Salines
The Grand Hôtel des Salines is a hotel building in Rheinfelden in the canton of Aargau . It is located northeast of the old town on the banks of the Rhine and was opened in 1882. As a luxury hotel, it was the social center of the brine health resort for several decades . Due to falling demand, the hotel had to close in 1963, after which it was vacant. The east wing has been used as a hotel again since 1978, the middle section as a senior citizens' residence. In the monumental west wing, the same time as a cultural asset of national importance is classified, there is a private clinic.
history
In 1862 the entrepreneur Heinrich von Struve acquired a bathing establishment that had existed on the banks of the Rhine since 1847 and expanded it with guest rooms. Shortly afterwards, two branches were created (both broken down in 1929). The new owner Viktor Dietschy renovated the dilapidated old buildings in 1881 and commissioned the renowned architect Robert Moser to build an additional bathhouse. Thanks to the increasing number of guests (especially from abroad), the company was gradually expanded and made increasingly luxurious from 1891 onwards. In the eastern part of the park, the Villa Concordia (today's east wing) was built according to Moser's plans and was connected to the rest of the grounds by a spacious dining room.
The architects Robert Curjel and Karl Moser were responsible for the following extensions . In 1894 the bathhouse was expanded (demolished in 1956). The original core building gave way to a spacious new building in 1896/97, today's west wing. Also in 1896 the English landscape garden was substantially expanded. In order to prevent the establishment of an industrial company, Dietschy acquired the parcels to the east in 1900, whereby the park grew to a size of 12.5 hectares . At the turn of the century, Rheinfelden was one of the most famous spa resorts in Europe, not least because of the Grand Hotel, and was particularly popular with wealthy French and Russian tourists . In 1907 and 1912 the Villa Concordia was expanded, and the facilities, which were extremely innovative for the time, brought with it an enormous competitive advantage: By placing the bathrooms right next to the hotel rooms, wealthy spa guests were able to have their water treatments administered privately for the first time.
The First World War caused a marked drop in the number of guests. After various renovations, the Grand Hôtel had 220 rooms in the mid-1920s. Another turning point was the Second World War , from which the Grand Hotel could never really recover. In 1963 operations finally had to be stopped. With a reorientation towards medical and therapeutic offers and wellness , Rheinfelden stopped the tourist downward trend in the mid-1970s. Since 1978 there has been a four-star hotel in the east wing again, the Park-Hotel am Rhein . A senior citizens' residence has been in operation in the middle section since 2008. The west wing was extensively renovated in 2012; since then Alta Aesthetica has been domiciled there, an upscale private clinic for aesthetic surgery and dentistry .
Building
The elongated building complex of the Grand Hôtel des Salines is located on the banks of the Rhine, east of the city park and behind the spa center built in the 1970s. The three - storey neo - Gothic west wing with a mansard roof has remained largely unchanged from the outside since it was built . The facade facing the old town looks massive and has a castle-like appearance due to the two towers with onion domes . Loggias and terraces run around the first floor. These consist of stone on the west side with heavy tracery parapets , and on the south side of filigree cast iron railings . Inside, the dining rooms on the ground floor, the vestibule and the stairwell, which are decorated in a cautious Art Nouveau style , have essentially been preserved .
The transverse building adjoins the west wing, protruding into the park at right angles. The three-story building has a hipped roof and a U-shaped floor plan. It counts six times three axes , while on the east side uniaxial corner projections surround a small courtyard. Typical of the period of origin (1888/89) is the late Classicist facade design with a banded ground floor, corner cuboids and gable-shaped roofs on the windows. The interior work by Robert Moser is largely true to the original.
The Villa Concordia forms the east wing of the group of buildings. Four-story annex buildings are attached to the three-story building. These are mighty plastered buildings with mansard roofs, the building shells of which are also largely intact. The original interior was removed in 1963 and now meets modern requirements.
literature
- Edith Hunziker, Peter Hoegger: The art monuments of the canton of Aargau . Ed .: Society for Swiss Art History . Volume IX, Rheinfelden district. Bern 2011, ISBN 978-3-906131-94-8 , pp. 261-264 .
- Magazine “B for Basel” with reports on the Grand Hotel and the spa , 2009 (PDF, 1.9 MB)
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 33 '28.5 " N , 7 ° 47' 53.9" E ; CH1903: six hundred and twenty-seven thousand and seventy-one / 267 528