Montreux trumpets heritage buildings
Montreux has been a magnet for tourists for about two centuries - long before the jazz festival put the spotlight on the Lake Geneva town.
Now the resort has decided to highlight this heritage by creating a tour of many old palace hotels, English and Russian churches and private residences designed by renowned architects.
At first glance, the 21 buildings in and around Montreux and the neighbouring town of Vevey could not be more different.
Some are grand, some unassuming; a few are beautifully restored, others rundown.
Yet they all stand testimony to the development of the region as a tourist resort, a retreat for the rich and famous, and a centre for multinationals.
The guide to Montreux and Vevey is – after the mountain resorts of Mürren and Arosa – the third in a series by the Swiss Heritage Society.
“I hope this kind of publication will make more people aware of the importance of these buildings,” says Patrick Moser, an art historian who assisted in the making of the guide.
Every Wednesday afternoon, Moser opens the Villa le Lac to the public. As part of his routine, he gives it a quick inspection and dusts away cobwebs before launching into architectural and historical details.
Le Corbusier
Measuring only 64 square metres, it is by far the smallest building on the tour, but designed by perhaps the greatest architect of the 20th century, Le Corbusier.
The Swiss architect built the villa in 1922-23 directly on the Lake Geneva shore as a retirement home for his parents.
The single storey, box-like structure located on the outskirts of Vevey is the very definition of the minimalist architecture championed by Le Corbusier.
A long picture-window opens onto the lake, and sliding doors and stowaway beds enabled his parents to keep the interior open or divide it into separate rooms when they entertained guests.
Impossible to overlook in Vevey are the headquarters of the food giant, Nestlé.
Commanding a much larger stretch of the shoreline, the Y-shaped 1960s structure is, as the guide notes, “one of the rare examples of the international style in French-speaking Switzerland”.
Nestlé
The company founder, Henri Nestlé, developed his first baby formula on the Lake Geneva shore and the heritage guide pays further respect to the pioneer by including the “Nestlé Nursery” on the tour.
It was built in the late 1930s to accommodate three dozen infants, who were to be used for research into baby food.
Nearby is Vevey’s Russian Orthodox Church, recalling the middle of the 19th century when the writer Dostoyevsky and other members of the Russian bourgeoisie flocked to the area.
It is as typical of Slavic architecture as the Anglican Church in Montreux is of English design.
Dating back to 1877, the latter served the large community of British tourists and expatriates, as it still does to this day.
Its interior is neo-Gothic, topped by a magnificent wrought-wooden ceiling.
“This roof is exactly the kind you find in churches in the English countryside,” remarks Moser. “But this is a real English church in the middle of Montreux.”
Unfortunately, the roof proved to be leaky and the church walls were damaged.
Sotheby’s sale
Lacking money for the repairs, the church went to Sotheby’s to auction off the most valuable painting in its possession: a Madonna and Child by the Italian Renaissance artist, Andrea Previtali. The proceeds paid for much of the repair work.
The painting fetched a high price because the wall in the church nave where it had hung was miraculously spared from the water damage.
The Anglican Church was built for the 19th and early 20th century British guests who stayed at the two grand hotels (now private apartments) close by.
Local architect Eugène Jost was responsible for designing these structures, as well as several of Montreux’s other grand hotels, including the Montreux Palace.
The Palace remains a hotel and is one of the top addresses in Switzerland, which sadly can no longer be said for the Hotel National a little further down the road.
Long abandoned, the windows and doors of its magnificent gallery are now boarded up.
However, anyone deciding to take the architecture tour will be cheered at the next stop, the Caux Palace.
Belle Époque
It is Jost’s most impressive work and has to be one of the most impressive Belle Époque buildings in Switzerland, reigning over Montreux from its perch high above the town.
With its many turrets and towers, ballrooms and chandeliered lobbies, and its commanding views of Lake Geneva and the French Alps, it is an expression of the grand excess that accompanied the era.
It served as a hotel from its opening in 1902 to the late 1930s, and then housed Jewish refugees during the Second World War.
Immediately following the war, it was purchased by a peace foundation, Moral Re-armament (now renamed “Initiatives of Change”) which still owns the building.
Remarkably, the monumental structure was spared from disfiguring renovations over the decades and is being painstakingly restored.
It is still furnished with many of the original fixtures, decorous wooden tables and chairs.
swissinfo, Dale Bechtel in Montreux
The Montreux section includes the following buildings:
The Grand Hôtel (now private apartments) and St John’s Anglican Church at Territet on the town outskirts.
The Caux Palace – accessible by the Montreux-Glion-Caux mountain railway (The building administration requires at least 48 hours advance notice).
The Hotel National Gallery (abandoned).
The 19th century Catholic Church.
The 22-storey Ivory Tower apartment building.
The Montreux Palace hotel.
The Clarens Temple.
The villas Des Crêtes, Dubochet, and Karma.
In Vevey and surroundings:
The villas Kenwin (private residence), la Doges (visit by appointment only) and Le Corbusier’s Le Lac (see article) which is open to the public every Wednesday afternoon between April and October.
The Notre Dame and Russian Orthodox churches (the latter also opens Wednesday afternoons).
The Nestlé headquarters and nursery.
The Château de l’Aile, the Grenette and Galeries du Rivage, which are all clustered around Vevey’s Grande-Place.
The hotel Trois Couronnes, the 2003 winner of Switzerland’s historic hotel of the year award.
The “Discover our Heritage” leaflet (in English) is available from the Montreux and Vevey tourist offices free of charge.
Not all of the 21 buildings listed are open to the public, and others are only accessible with advance notice. It is advisable to enquire at the tourist office.
It is recommended to do the tour by public transport or with a private car, since the buildings are spread over a large area along the lakeshore and in the hills behind the two resorts.
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