Bürgenstock: luxury resort with diplomatic ambitions
Published: Friday, Jun 7th 2024, 09:50
Updated At: Friday, Jun 7th 2024, 09:51
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The Bürgenstock NW on Lake Lucerne was the scene of political negotiations even before the Ukraine conference, which begins in a week's time. The mountain can look back on over 150 years of hotel history. In the "Swinging Fifties", the rich and famous flocked there.
Since 2017, a luxury resort with four hotels, apartments, restaurants, bars, sports facilities, a conference, shopping and medical center has been welcoming well-heeled guests from all over the world on the Bürgenberg high above Lake Lucerne and the Stans plain.
The Qatar sovereign wealth fund invested over half a billion francs in the renovation and expansion. The Bürgenstock can be reached by a direct boat from Lucerne to the Bürgenstock Railway in Kehrsiten. There is also a post bus service from Stansstad.
After its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, the glamorous destination fell into a deep slumber for some time. The tourist destination was built from 1871 by the Obwalden hotel pioneers Franz-Josef Bucher and Josef Durrer.
They bought an alp on the Bürgenberg and named it Bürgenstock. After the Second World War, some Belle Epoque hotels were demolished or converted into apartments.
Hepburn and Loren
Owned by the Frey-Fürst family since 1925, it brought new momentum from the 1950s onwards. After American-style extensions with a "Hollywood swimming pool", world stars from the USA came to the Bürgenstock.
Hollywood star Audrey Hepburn got married on the Bürgenstock and also lived there. Sophia Loren was a regular guest and also lived on the mountain. Last but not least, Paola and Kurt Felix said "I do" in the Gothic chapel.
The German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer spent three vacations on the Bürgenstock from 1950 onwards. He was joined by other German statesmen such as Theodor Heuss, Walter Scheel and Helmuth Schmidt.
The founder of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, and Prime Minister Golda Meir attended from Israel. Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi were also on the guest list, as were Charlie Chaplin and best-selling authors.
Peace and Bilderberg Conferences
Influential figures from politics and business met on the Bürgenstock in 1960, 1981 and 1995 for the Bilderberg Conference, which was shrouded in secrecy. In 1960, the later US President Jimmy Carter also took part.
In 2002, the Sudanese civil war parties signed a ceasefire for the Nuba Mountains on the Bürgenstock under the auspices of the USA and Switzerland. In 2004, talks between Greece and Turkey on the reunification of Cyprus failed under the aegis of the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan.
The mountain was set to return to the international spotlight in 2021 when the World Economic Forum (WEF) was held. The cantons of Lucerne and Nidwalden were already rejoicing and preparing safety measures. In the end, however, the WEF moved to Singapore due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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