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Behaglich-entspannt mit Bergblick: das Kaminzimmer • Comfy-relaxed with a mountain view: the fireplace lounge Gediegene Alpennoblesse in der Laret-Suite • Upscale Alpine noblesse in the Laret suite

selling shares in it. To this day, committed permanent guests donate heirlooms from the refurbished between 1896 and 1898: According to plans by the architects Jacob and
time of the Belle Époque – often valuable antiques owned by the family. In this way, Georg Ragaz, it was converted and expanded into an upscale, horseshoe-shaped
many a regular guest is able to live surrounded by his or her own furniture. three-winged ensemble with a palatial forecourt, an Ehrenhof, just the way the neo-
baroque facility still looks today. With the main entrance below the mansard-roof cupo-
... the stage for artists and scientists of the Belle Époque la in the middle of the forecourt, a light-flooded hotel lobby in the centre, salons
arranged along both sides, the dining room complemented with two aisles (the magnif-
At the turn of the century, the economic upswing, the expansion of transport networks icent Grand Restaurant), the luxuriously equipped hotel with 350 beds was from now
and the falling transport costs led to more people travelling to Switzerland. In addition on called Grand Hotel Kronenhof und Bellavista. As of 1908 the Rhätische Bahn railway
to the pioneers of science, the Belle Époque attracted noble and wealthy guests, illus- operated year round from Chur all the way up to Pontresina and took noble and
trious writers, musicians to the Swiss grand hotels which served them as luxurious well-heeled guests from all over the world to the Kronenhof – until the First World War
refuges and sources of inspiration: Nowhere else could they find a similar density of broke out in 1914. The wine shop Lorenz had formerly established now saved the hotel
natural wonders and such an impressive scenery; nowhere else was unobtrusive serv- during the years of crisis.
ice writ larger, were guest more king than here. Thus the grand hotels became bour-
geois palaces for a while, with celebrities such as Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Winter Olympic Games brought a new upswing
Albert Einstein and Friedrich Nietzsche spending time in the salons and reading rooms
there. In search of inspiration and tranquillity in seclusion, many of them at the time In 1928, the Winter Olympic Games came to St Moritz – with ski-jumping in Pontresina
also spent the night at the Waldhaus Sils. Owned by the same family since 1908, it sits – and briefly caused a new upswing in the region. The economic standstill during the
enthroned like a fortress at 1,800 metres above sea level, framed by the striking three- Second World War turned Switzerland into the “Alpine fortress” and only a few guests
thousand-metre peaks Piz Corvatsch and Piz Lagrev in the Upper Engadine. Whereas stayed in the oldest part of the Kronenhof. Three years after the end of the war, the
adventurers and mountaineers booked into to the grand hotel Bellevue des Alpes exist- Winter Olympics were held for the second time in the Engadine and an international
ing since 1840 in order to conquer the north face of the Eiger or watch it being done by jet set was once again coming to St Moritz as the Mecca of glamour and to Pontresina
others from the hotel terrace, the Schatzalp in Davos was opened as a luxury sanatori- as the place of discretion and tranquillity. After a family tradition of 140 years, the
um in 1901. It was considered to be the most modern tuberculosis sanatorium of the Gredig family eventually sold the Kronenhof in 1989 and various investors have been
whole region and was more of a hotel than a clinic, visited by rich and famous contem- operating, maintaining and expanding the hotel ever since. In 2007, an underground
poraries. Katia Mann also stayed here quite a while in 1912. When her husband, parking as well as a wellness facility on 2,000 square metres were constructed and, in
Thomas Mann, visited her, he was inspired for his novel “The Magic Mountain” which 2016, the French interior designer Pierre-Yves Rochon who specializes in grand hotels
was to make the Schatzalp world famous. As a building on the “List of cultural heritage refurbished 13 double rooms and junior suites in the Kronenhof. Today, the hotel ranks
of international significance in the Canton of Grisons”, the Kronenhof in Pontresina among the facilities with the most tradition in the Grisons and among the best-
reflects the typical development history from an inn into a grand hotel: In 1848, Andreas preserved Swiss grand hotels of the 19th century. The cultural heritage of the Swiss
Gredig bought the Gasthaus Rössli for his son Lorenz. The latter established a wine shop grand hotels of the Belle Époque which survived two world wars and numerous
for Veltliner there and bought horses for transporting the wine across the Bernina Pass. economic crises and today look more magnificent than ever is amazing and the result
After the first conversion, he newly opened it in 1851 as the Gasthaus zur Krone-Post. of families with perseverance and patriotism but also with civil courage and the right
Ten years later, Lorenz had the inn expanded by the local master builder Nikolaus entrepreneurial decisions. The history of the families is steeped in legends, as is often
Hartmann senior with the adjacent school building and was now able to offer 50 beds. that of their guests as well. Thus it is said that Thomas Mann had been flirting with the
The flourishing tourism of the 1870 brought plenty of money into the Upper Engadine waiter Franzl in Zurich’s Grandhotel Dolder and that the French cellist Pierre Fournier
and Hartman added a new dining room towards the valley with the kitchen located had invited Hermann Hesse to a private concert in his room in the Waldhaus in
underneath it and its extension as the Bellavista wing with luxurious function rooms Sils Maria. Vladimir Nabokov seems to have held court for 17 years on the sixth floor
and guest rooms with private lounges. From then on, the hotel was called Hotel of the Palace Montreux and Rainer Maria Rilke is said to have added up the ages
Kronenhof und Bellavista. The hotel was most thoroughly and most strikingly of the guests in the Quellenhof in Bad Ragaz.

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