The Château Gütsch is a historic

château A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. No ...

Lucerne Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label= Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital o ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. In 1859, Burkhard Pfyffer bought a plot of land on the Gütsch hill from the town and was granted the right to run an inn. The inn was then bought by Ignaz Businger in 1879 and expanded into a hotel. Like many hotels of the

Belle Epoque Belle may refer to: * Belle (''Beauty and the Beast'') * Belle (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Belle (surname), a list of people Brands and enterprises * Belle Air, a former airline with headquarters in Tirana, Albania ...

, The Château Gütsch was built on a vantage point above lakes, rivers, and cities, in this case the city Lucerne and the river

Reuss Reuss may refer to: * Reuss (surname) *Reuss (river) in Switzerland *Reuss (state) or Reuß, several former states or countries in present-day Germany, and the Republic of Reuss * Reuss Elder Line and Reuss Younger Line The Principality of Reus ...

. The Château was built in 1884 specifically to suport the hotel. In 1868 Queen Victoria stayed at a site near the hotel with

Prince Arthur Prince Arthur may refer to: *Arthur I, Duke of Brittany (1187-1203), nephew and possible heir of Richard I of England *Arthur, Prince of Wales (1486–1502), eldest son Henry VII of England *Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn Prin ...

and

Princess Louise Princess Louise may refer to: ;People: * Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, 1848–1939, the sixth child and fourth daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom * Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife, 1867–1931, the ...

. As part of a significant transalpine railroad development and modernization plan in Switzerland in the second half of the 19th century, a railline was built connecting Lucerne to the château. A large part of the hotel was completely destroyed in the great fire of 1888. In 1901 the hotel received its present appearance, being modelled after

Neuschwanstein Neuschwanstein Castle (german: Schloss Neuschwanstein, , Southern Bavarian: ''Schloss Neischwanstoa'') is a 19th-century historicist palace on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. The ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

. It was purchased by Evgeny Lebedev in 2012, who commissioned

Martyn Lawrence Bullard Martyn Lawrence Bullard is an English interior designer, author and television personality based in Los Angeles. Martyn has been consistently named as one of the world’s top 100 interior designers by ''Architectural Digest,'' featured permane ...

to renovate it. The current owner is Kirill Androsov.

References

Residential buildings completed in the 19th century Buildings and structures in Lucerne Hotels in Switzerland {{Switzerland-struct-stub