Hotel Bellevue Palace

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Hotel Bellevue Palace (2008)

The Hotel Bellevue Palace is a 5-star - luxury hotel in Bern . It is located on Kochergasse on the southern edge of the old town , immediately east of the Federal Palace . The hotel with 130 rooms is owned by the federal government and is run by the Victoria-Jungfrau Collection AG as a tenant. Foreign heads of state and government use the hotel as a residence for official visits, and some members of the Federal Assembly also stay here during their sessions . The Bellevue Palace, which opened in 1865 and was completely rebuilt in 1912/13, is considered a prime example of neoclassical reform architecture ; since 1973 it has been a member of the Leading Hotels of the World .

building

The hotel stands on the edge of the old town on a prominent edge of the terrain that slopes down to the Aare in the south . The main facades on the south and east sides are structured by Corinthian columns , the rounded south-east corner takes on the function of a central projection . On the north side, the main entrance is spanned by a wide glass roof. Above the third floor, a continuous cornice separates the facade from the attic storey above . The mansard roof is broken through on the south and east by hipped roofs . Inside, on the ground floor, the various common rooms are grouped around a glazed inner courtyard , the “palm garden”.

Reception in 1933

The roof of the palm garden has stained glass . A large chandelier dominates the Salon d'Honneur dining room , which is decorated with stucco and gilding. The La Terrasse dining room with its white plaster vault is a bit simpler . Two smaller halls are arranged in the corners: the Salon Casino in the southwest is modeled on the Hall of Mirrors of Versailles and is used for private parties, the Salon rouge in the southeast stands out with the sharp contrast between white stucco and intense red wall coverings . To the west is the Salon du Palais , the main Louis-Seize- style dining room . The Salon Royal to the east serves as an auditorium and banquet hall.

history

Previous construction

With the construction of the western wing of today's Federal Palace, the “Federal City Hall”, between 1852 and 1857, the need for upscale accommodation in the city of Bern grew. The Hotel Bernerhof was opened in 1858 . Carl Osswald (1816–1883) from Offenburg , landlord of the «Goldener Falken» inn, where the guests of the Swiss government stayed until then, also wanted to enter the luxury hotel business and in 1864 acquired two properties on Inselgasse (today's Kochergasse) . Then he had the hotel "Bellevue" built, which he named after the neighboring lookout point of the same name.

The hotel, which opened in 1865, was a two-wing complex. While the main wing stretched along the alley, the side wing adjoined the former home of the polymath Albrecht von Haller . All 110 guest beds were in rooms facing south or east. The old Inselspital , where Theodor Kocher worked , was in the immediate vicinity . Until the new hospital building opened at its current location in 1884, the wealthier patients preferred to be cared for in the hotel.

The hotel has been the scene of social events several times. General Charles Denis Bourbaki stayed here in 1871 after his army had been interned in Switzerland. Three years later, the Federal Council held a banquet to mark the founding of the Universal Postal Union . After Carl Osswald's death in 1883, his sons Alphons (1857–1900) and Philipp (1863–1918) took over the hotel. In 1911, under Philipp Oswald's leadership, the Hotel Bellevue Palace AG was founded, which acquired the neighboring properties (Hallerhaus and Federal Mint ). The architects Paul Lindt and Max Hoffmann were commissioned to plan a new building that was twice as large.

New building

The demolition began on November 1, 1911 and lasted four months. Work on the new building began on March 1, 1912, and the topping-out ceremony was celebrated on November 30 of the same year. The rapid construction time was due to the use of the new reinforced concrete skeleton. The interior construction took another year. Finally, the new Hotel Bellevue Palace, which was modeled on the Hotel Adlon in Berlin , opened on November 27, 1913. Guests stayed here for only a few months: on August 3, 1914 , shortly after the outbreak of the First World War , the Federal Assembly elected Ulrich Wille as general . He seized the hotel and used it as the headquarters of the army command for the duration of the war . It also served as the headquarters of the General Staff .

During the Second World War , the Bellevue Palace remained open to guests. The hotel developed into a meeting place for politicians, diplomats and journalists. Half of the restaurant was frequented by guests from the Allied states , the other half by guests from the Axis powers . Allen Dulles , envoy of the OSS , is said to have frequented the hotel bar. These illustrious guests gave the hotel a legendary reputation.

Dwindling number of overnight stays after the end of the war drove the owners of Bellevue Palace increasingly into economic difficulties. When the takeover by foreign investors threatened, the Swiss National Bank acquired the majority of the shares in 1976. In 1995 the hotel came into the possession of the federal government through a donation, since then the director of the Federal Finance Administration has presided over the administrative board . From January 7th to December 31st, 2002 a comprehensive renovation and modernization took place. Three quarters of the costs, amounting to 40 million francs, were for the complete renewal of the building services ; the number of rooms has been reduced from 230 to 130 by breaking out partition walls. In 2007, management was transferred to Victoria-Jungfrau Collection AG.

The hotel has hosted numerous heads of state and government, including Winston Churchill , Mikhail Gorbachev , Jawaharlal Nehru , Queen Elizabeth II and Emperor Akihito ; there are also numerous other celebrities. Part of the plot of the agent novel Smiley's People by John le Carré takes place in Bellevue Palace. During parliamentary sessions, the hotel's bar and lounge are popular meeting places for late-night negotiations, especially before Federal Council elections .

literature

Web links

Commons : Hotel Bellevue Palace  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Dale Bechtel: Hotel reopened for state guests. swissinfo , December 31, 2002, accessed September 5, 2010 .
  2. ↑ a b The history of the Bellevue Palace in Bern. (PDF, 50 KB) (No longer available online.) Victoria-Jungfrau Collection AG , archived from the original on December 3, 2013 ; Retrieved November 27, 2013 .
  3. ^ Martin Fröhlich: The Hotel Bellevue Palace in Bern, pp. 15-16
  4. ↑ Martin Fröhlich: The Hotel Bellevue Palace in Bern, pp. 24–31
  5. ↑ Martin Fröhlich: The Hotel Bellevue Palace in Bern, pp. 7–8
  6. ↑ Martin Fröhlich: The Hotel Bellevue Palace in Bern, p. 8
  7. ↑ Martin Fröhlich: The Hotel Bellevue Palace in Bern, pp. 10–11
  8. ↑ Martin Fröhlich: The Hotel Bellevue Palace in Bern, pp. 12-13
  9. ↑ Martin Fröhlich: The Hotel Bellevue Palace in Bern, p. 18
  10. ↑ James Srodes: Allen Dulles, Master of Spies . Regnery Publishing, Washington DC 1999, ISBN 0-89526-314-9 , pp. 78 .
  11. ↑ Martin Fröhlich: The Hotel Bellevue Palace in Bern, p. 22
  12. ↑ Hotel Bellevue Palace with a record year. nachricht.ch, May 10, 2006, accessed on September 5, 2010 .
  13. ^ Official guest house of the Swiss government: The Bellevue Palace in Bern. (PDF, 64 KB) (No longer available online.) Victoria-Jungfrau Collection AG, archived from the original on December 4, 2013 ; Retrieved September 5, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.victoria-jungfrau-collection.ch

Coordinates: 46 ° 56 '47.8 "  N , 7 ° 26' 47.8"  E ; CH1903:  600607  /  199502