Baur au Lac

Talstrasse 1 is an unlikely address for a park. The street runs off Bürkliplatz, where the Bahnhofstrasse meets the lake, and behind a gate and a line of plane trees the Baur au Lac sits in its own grounds with the Schanzengraben canal on one side and Lake Zurich a few steps away. The park, not the building, is what sets the hotel apart in a city centre where land is measured in square metres.

History

Johannes Baur, an Austrian who had run a hotel in Zurich since the 1830s, built the Baur au Lac in 1844 on what was then open ground outside the old fortifications. The lake was at the door, and the hotel took its name from it. Baur's descendants have owned it without interruption. The present owner, Andrea Kracht, is the sixth generation of the founding family, and the hotel is run as a family business rather than as part of a chain.

The guest book is a Zurich history in itself. Richard Wagner, living in exile in the city, performed the first act of Die Walküre at the hotel in 1856 with Franz Liszt at the piano. Empress Elisabeth of Austria stayed several times. In 1892 Bertha von Suttner and Alfred Nobel met in Zurich, and the Baur au Lac is cited as the place where their conversations about peace took shape before Nobel's will endowed the prize. In 1928 the hotel was one of the founding members of The Leading Hotels of the World.

Architecture and design

The hotel is a four-storey block of pale stone with a mansard roof, extended and rebuilt several times over 180 years while keeping its footprint in the park. The interiors were renovated in stages through the 2000s and 2010s, with the public rooms, the restaurants and the rooms all touched. The lobby runs through to the garden, and the Pavillon restaurant is a glazed rotunda in the park designed by Pierre-Yves Rochon. The hotel also runs its own wine merchant, Baur au Lac Vins, from premises nearby.

Rooms and suites

Around 120 rooms and suites look either over the park and the lake or over the canal and the old town. No two are decorated alike, and the styles range across Art Deco, Louis XVI and contemporary interiors, so regular guests ask for specific rooms rather than categories. The lake-facing suites on the upper floors have terraces with a view across the water to the Alps on clear days.

Dining

The Pavillon holds a Michelin star and serves French-based cooking in the rotunda overlooking the park. Baur's, the brasserie, replaced the former Rive Gauche in 2021 with an all-day menu and a bar that draws a Zurich crowd rather than only hotel guests. In summer the terrace in the park serves lunch and dinner under the trees. The hotel's wine list draws on its own merchant business.

Weddings and events

The Baur au Lac hosts weddings and corporate events in seven function rooms, from salons in the main building to the banqueting rooms in the adjoining Petit Palais, and in the park in summer. Zurich's civil ceremonies take place at the Stadthaus, a short way along the lakefront. The hotel has been the setting for the city's society weddings and for the receptions around the Zurich financial calendar for generations.

Location

The address is Talstrasse 1, in Zurich's district 1, at the foot of the Bahnhofstrasse and beside Bürkliplatz, where the lake boats leave. Zurich main station is a ten-minute tram ride up the Bahnhofstrasse, and Zurich airport is about 20 minutes by taxi or 15 minutes by train from the main station. The Kunsthaus, the Opera House and the Paradeplatz banks are within walking distance. The park makes it the only luxury hotel in Zurich with grounds of its own on the lake.