Hotel Monte Rosa
The Hotel Monte Rosa is a historic four-star hotel in Belle Époque style in Zermatt in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It is a member of the Swiss Historic Hotels Association .
history
The foundation walls of the Hotel Monte Rosa go back to the Laubersche Herberge built in 1838 , a wooden chalet whose name is derived from its owner, a Doctor Lauber.
In 1853 the young Alexander Seiler I rented the chalet. The first two summers were successful, so that Seiler was able to acquire the property at the end of the second year of operation. He expanded it from 6 to 35 beds and reopened it on July 24, 1855 under the name «Monte Rosa».
This was the hour of birth of tourism in Zermatt and the parent company of the Seiler hotel industry. It is not known whether the name was given in connection with the first ascent of the Dufourspitze in the Monte Rosa massif , which took place just a few days earlier on July 11, 1855 , or was a coincidence.
As was customary at the time, only managed in summer, the hotel soon enjoyed great popularity, especially among mountaineers . In 1868 it was extended to 60 beds by an annex in the north, in 1890 a fourth floor and a mansarded attic were added and a small dining room was added; the number of beds rose to 110. With this renovation, the Hotel Monte Rosa also got its striking facade.
With the increasing interest of tourists in winter sports, the hotel was equipped for winter operation in 1960 and ran the first winter season in 1960/61.
The Hotel Monte Rosa and Edward Whymper
The tourist books of the Seiler hotels and the rich alpine literature show that almost without exception all pioneers were regular guests of Zermatt and mainly of the Hotel Monte Rosa.
According to the entry in the guest book, Edward Whymper stayed at «Monte Rosa» for the first time from August 8 to 13, 1860. From here he set out on July 13, 1865, for the first ascent of the Matterhorn . In 1970, a memorial plaque for Edward Whymper was inaugurated at the entrance to the Hotel Monte Rosa.
The Hotel Monte Rosa and its guests
- "While I was writing in the living room of the Hotel Monte Rosa, my ink froze". Reverend Christopher Smyth, one of the first to climb the Dufourspitze in 1855.
- Scenes from the film Love and Bullets were shot in the Hotel Monte Rosa. Urs H. Keller, ex-hotel director, remembers: Charles Bronson asked for me and, ready for a complaint, I went to him. "Can you imagine, I queued up to buy some stamps at the post office, paid them and left the post office without anyone even looking at me or asking me for an autograph. This has never happend to me before - this is just fantastic! »
- "Ascended the Matterhorn on July 22nd 1871 and arrived at the summit at 8.55 am" This is how Lucy Walker , the first woman on the Matterhorn, wrote in the guest book of the Hotel Monte Rosa.
literature
- Roland Flückiger-Seiler. Mountain hotels between Alpweide and summit cross, Verlag Hier + Jetzt, Baden, 2015, pages 191–192 (with numerous contemporary references)
- Herbert Meider: Swiss pioneers in the hotel industry . Swiss Traffic Center, Paudex 1976
- Mark Andreas Seiler: One glacier - one hotel - one family. Horizons of a Valais hotelier dynasty , Rotten Verlag, Visp 2012, ISBN 978-3-905756-67-8 , pp. 195 ff.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christian Imboden, Berge: Beruf, Berufung, Schicksal , Rotten Verlag, Visp, 2013, page 37 and Stanislaus Kronig, Family Statistics and History of Zermatt , 1927, page 286
- ^ Railway in the film
Coordinates: 46 ° 1 '12.8 " N , 7 ° 44' 46" E ; CH1903: 623,812 / 96565