At the houses of the Swiss Historic Hotels, one can read the styles of architecture and interior design like a history book – a walk through the changing epochs of the world of forms. The art historical journey leads from Fischingen via Küsnacht and Amsteg, makes stops in Thun, Bergün, and Klosters, and ends in Ascona.
In Kloster Fischingen, those who wish to indulge in baroque opulence are in the right place. What the baroque master builders with resounding names like Moosbrugger, Zimmermann, Grubenmann, and Beer created there in the 17th and 18th centuries is of the highest quality. A baroque unity of architecture, sculpture, and painting in the monastery church and library, playfully elegant in the stucco ceilings of the halls, monastically simple in the guest rooms.
The bourgeois inns of the 19th century responded to the opulence of the Baroque with Biedermeier interiors – deliberately simple and tranquil, yet always solid and valuable. In such dining rooms, you can dine at the Hotel Stern und Post in Amsteg or at the Hotel Sonne in Küsnacht – in front of an Urner Herrgottswinkel or under the gaze of Zurich local celebrities painted in oil.
From the mid-19th century, simple modesty was no longer in demand. Instead, guests were to be indulged with noble elegance and academic forms. The diversity of Historicism was excellently suited for this: It successively adopted the forms of Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classicism, becoming the dominant style of the Belle Epoque and maintained until the 20th century. The Schloss Schadau, built between 1849 and 1854 on the shores of Lake Thun, stands like no other for this attitude: Designed by Neuchâtel and Parisian architects, its architecture quotes features of French Loire castles and English Tudor Gothic. The interior surprises with a variety of styles, excellent wood and marble imitations, illusionistically painted paneling, and sophisticated pseudo-beam ceilings made of stucco.
The reaction to this historicizing trompe-l'oeil was a new style with an independent repertoire of forms – Art Nouveau. Originating from the Scottish Arts-and-Crafts movement, it developed vegetal, flowing lines in Paris and Brussels at the end of the 19th century, whereas in Vienna, it developed geometric forms in the so-called Secession style. This Art Nouveau variant was chosen by Zurich architect Huwyler-Boller for the interior of the Kurhaus Bergün, which opened in 1906. Wall coverings, stucco, and ceiling paintings, door frames, stair railings, and a whole range of magnificent chandeliers combine here to form a unique Art Nouveau ensemble. Even the emblematic rose of the Kurhaus appears in a stylized, geometric variant.
At the beginning of the 20th century, however, a movement also emerged for which Historicism was too academic and Art Nouveau too elitist. This reform or Heimatstil returned to regional values and traditional craftsmanship. Under the impression of the world wars, it remained popular until well into the mid-century. In Klosters, a veritable Gesamtkunstwerk of the Heimatstil was even created in 1939 as part of the Spiritual National Defense, the Chesa Grischuna. The architect Hermann Schneider, commissioned by the hotelier Hans Guler, not only designed the architecture and fixed furnishings with carved woodwork and wrought iron but also the furniture and even the Heimatstil patterns of the textiles. For the picturesque decoration, he enlisted renowned artists like Alois Carigiet.
From the 1920s onwards, Europe's architectural greats underwent a radical change. Ornament is a crime, wrote the Viennese Adolf Loos, Le Corbusier turned away from Neoclassicism, and the Weimar Bauhaus propagated the doctrine of pure, clear form. Modernity also found its way onto Monte Verità in Ascona. In 1928, the Düsseldorf architect Emil Fahrenkamp built a hotel in an avant-garde style for the banker Eduard von der Heydt. At the Albergo Monte Verità, you can enjoy sharply cut volumes, a walkable flat roof, and light-flooded rooms in unadorned elegance.
