Hotel Stern und Post

Histoire depuis 1788

The Stern & Post in Amsteg is one of the oldest inns in central Switzerland. It is first mentioned in a 1357 document. At the time the modest hostel served pilgrims and traders as the last rest stop before the dangerous crossing of the Alps. As interest in the alpine regions grew in the 18th century, scientists and writers also made their way over the Gotthard, particularly Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) on his three Swiss journeys. Following a major fire in the village in May 1788, a completely new inn was built: a typical house of central Switzerland with a steep saddleback roof and several rows of windows in the Baroque-paneled first-floor restaurants. When the postal coach connection via the Gotthard Pass was opened in 1830, the formerly modest inn became an important station for changing horses. A larger annex in Biedermeier style was added at the back of the building in the same year that the road over the pass was opened. In 1850, the Swiss Postal Service, which had only been created two years earlier, set up a public post office at the inn. In 1870, a new annex was added on the west side of the building near the banks of the Reuss. It offered wealthier tourists from abroad more modern conveniences. The opening of the Gotthard train line in 1882 had almost no negative impact on the successful business; the Stern & Post remained a popular stop on the north-south axis through the Swiss Alps. Following World War II, when automobile traffic going south increased sharply, the hotel was again extensively renovated. The panorama room jutting out on pillars on the garden side also dates from that ­period. The Stern & Post has been a member of Swiss Historic Hotels since 2008, and in 2009, the Icomos jury gave the hotel a special award “for the skilled restoration of fully preserved high-quality hotel furniture from all eras of the inn”. (RF)