Bellevue Palace

Kochergasse runs along the top of the Aare's gorge in Bern, and between the Federal Palace and the Casino the view opens south over the river to the line of the Bernese Alps. The Bellevue Palace, Bern, was built to own that view. It opened in 1913, replacing an earlier Bellevue hotel, to plans by the Bern architects Paul Lindt and Max Hofmann, and since 1994 it has belonged to the Swiss Confederation, which uses it as its official guest house.

History

The first Bellevue on the site was a hotel of the 1860s for the diplomats and visitors drawn by the new capital of the federal state. By the start of the 20th century it was outclassed, and a new building was commissioned in the palace-hotel manner of the Belle Époque, with a ballroom, a glass-roofed hall and bedrooms facing the mountains. It opened in 1913, a year before the war that emptied Europe's grand hotels.

Its position beside parliament fixed its role. Federal councillors, parliamentarians and journalists have taken their lunch and their aperitif here for a century; the saying in Bern is that decisions are prepared in the Bellevue Bar and ratified next door. In both world wars, neutral Bern was a listening post, and the hotel's bar and lobby were frequented by the diplomats and agents of every side; Allen Dulles, who ran the American intelligence station in Bern from 1942, was among the regulars.

The Confederation bought the hotel in 1994 to secure a residence for its state guests and leased out its operation. Since 2010 the Victoria-Jungfrau Collection, which also runs the Victoria-Jungfrau in Interlaken, has managed it.

Architecture and design

The building is a block in restrained Belle Époque classicism, with a mansard roof and a long garden front over the Aare. The ground floor holds the glass-roofed hall and the ballroom with their original stucco, chandeliers and panelling. The terrace on the garden side, set above the river, is the best seat in Bern on a summer evening, with the Gurten hill and, in clear weather, the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau in view.

Rooms and suites

Rooms are classic in style, in pale tones with period furniture and marble bathrooms; those on the south side face the Alps, those on the north the Old Town roofs and the Federal Palace. Three suites crown the house and are the ones used for state guests.

Dining

The Bellevue Bar is the hotel's institution, open to all and busiest when parliament sits. VUE is the restaurant, with a terrace over the Aare in summer and a kitchen that works with Swiss produce in a contemporary style. Lighter meals are served in the lobby lounge, and the terrace runs its own menu in the warm months. Afternoon tea and the Sunday brunch bring in the city.

Wellness

A fitness room, a sauna and a steam bath are on an upper floor. There is no pool.

Weddings and events

The ballroom and the salons are Bern's grandest reception rooms, used for state banquets, the balls of the city's societies and weddings. Meeting rooms host boards, press conferences and the seminars of the federations headquartered in the capital. Capacities depend on the room.

Location

The Federal Palace is next door, the Zytglogge clock tower five minutes along the arcades, and the whole of the Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983, lies within a fifteen-minute walk; the Bear Park is at the far end of the Nydegg bridge. Bern railway station is about five minutes on foot, with trains to Zurich airport in about 75 minutes and to Geneva in under two hours. Bern-Belp airport, with regional flights, is 20 minutes by road. For a luxury hotel in Bern, the Bellevue has the only address that matters.