Palace Lucerne

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Hotel Palace seen from the lake

Hotel Palace Luzern is a hotel of the Belle Époque at Nationalquai in Lucerne on Lake Lucerne . The building was built from 1904 to 1906 and is classified as a cultural asset of national importance and therefore stands as a B object under monument protection .

history

Hotel Palace, west side with entrance

In 1903, the Swiss hotel pioneer Franz Josef Bucher-Durrer bought the 3,285 square meter undeveloped property at the end of the Nationalquais for 880,000 Swiss francs . The square meter price of 270 francs for swampy ground was considered extremely expensive at the time. According to the plans of the team of architects Meili-Wapf , construction began in July 1904 and the Palace Luzern was opened on May 7, 1906. The construction cost 4 million Swiss francs. All rooms and apartments on the lake and east side had private bathrooms, which was considered extravagant luxury at the time. This means there are 120 bathrooms and toilets for every 350 beds. In contrast, the nearby Schweizerhof only had 70 baths for 400 beds and the National 79 baths for 450 beds. At the opening, the press praised the hotel and counted it among the richest and most elegant hotels in the world.

The hotel was closed during World War I and then flourished in the 1920s. At the time of the global economic crisis from 1929 onwards, overnight stays decreased and at the same time the interest burden depressed. The Swiss Hotel Company Ltd remained only the Palace Luzern is the only hotel from the former Bucher-Durrer empire. During the Second World War , the hotel was used as a medical facility and storage facility.

After a two-year renovation at a cost of 1.5 million Swiss francs, the hotel was reopened as a luxury hotel in 1946 . Since the 1970s, the hotel has been modernized and redesigned many times and converted to year-round operation. The reconstruction of the two attic floors for 15 million Swiss francs in the winter of 1993/94 gave the Palace 48 new rooms and suites . In October 1997 the Victoria-Jungfrau Collection AG took over the hotel business from Walter Ernst and Jürg Reinshagen.

From 1999 to 2005 the hotel was renovated for a total of 22.7 million Swiss francs, with the main focus being on an architectural return to Art Nouveau. In 2005 facilities were renewed for 13 million Swiss francs.

The building was sold in 2011 by the Victoria-Jungfrau Collection to CS Funds AG, a Credit Suisse real estate fund, for just over CHF 30 million . In December 2015, Credit Suisse sold the hotel to the Chinese investor Yunfeng Gao , who also owns the Hotel Europäische Hof in Engelberg and the Hotels Frutt Lodge & Spa and Frutt Family Lodge on Melchsee-Frutt .

The hotel has been run by the Hunziker couple since 2013. In October 2017 the hotel was closed for renovation and in January 2018 the inventory was sold. After delays, the renovation started in autumn 2018, which is expected to cost 100 million francs. The work should be completed by autumn 2019, later October 2020 was given as the reopening date. The hotel is said to have 148 rooms, including one suite; previously there were 129 guest rooms.

Hotel operations

The five-star hotel was operated from 1997 until it closed in October 2017 by the Victoria-Jungfrau Collection , a subsidiary of Aevis Victoria SA , which also operates the Hotels Eden au Lac in Zurich , Bellevue Palace in Bern and the Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa in Interlaken operates. The hotel's turnover in 2014 was CHF 15.2 million.

After reopening in October 2020, the hotel will be run by the Mandarin Oriental Group .

literature

  • Romano Cuonz , Hanspeter Niederberger : Hotelkönig, manufacturer: Franz Josef Bucher Brunner, Kriens 1998, ISBN 3-905198-45-2 .
    Special print under the title: From farmer's son to hotel king - Franz Josef Bucher. Literary research, Edition Magma / Brunner Verlag, Lucerne 1998, 2nd edition 2015.

Web links

Commons : Palace Luzern  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Canton of Lucerne, KGS inventory, provisional list of B objects (PDF) , inventory excerpt as of January 1, 2018 of the cultural property protection department at the Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP)
  2. ↑ a b Hotellerie: King of the Mountains . In: Bilanz , May 9, 2006
  3. ↑ No standstill at the Palasthotel on Lake Lucerne (PDF) , hotel history, on the hotel's website, accessed on October 11, 2015
  4. ↑ Hotels have to be unique. In: Neue Luzerner Zeitung, October 14, 2015, p. 11
  5. ^ Hotel Palace sale wrapped up . In: Neue Luzerner Zeitung , December 9, 2015
  6. ↑ "Palace" -Umbau delayed. In: Luzerner Zeitung, December 20, 2017
  7. ↑ Lucerne storm the «Palace». In: Luzerner Zeitung, January 27, 2018
  8. ↑ a b How Gao wants to give the Lucerne hotel “Palace” a radiance. In: Luzerner Zeitung , July 4, 2019
  9. ↑ Unprofitable Palace Hotel? Operator contradicts. In: Neue Luzerner Zeitung, October 9, 2015, p. 28
  10. ^ Luxury hotel Palace in Lucerne: Mandarin Oriental takes over operations. In: Luzerner Zeitung, October 22, 2019

Coordinates: 47 ° 3 '18.7 "  N , 8 ° 19' 11.4"  E ; CH1903:  666.95 thousand  /  211949