Grand Hotel Belvedere, a former Art Nouveau hotel in the Swiss Alps only accessible by train, reopened this month after a ‘loving’ but extensive renovation.
The launch of the restored Alpine hotel, which has become the first 5-star property to open in the secluded village of Wengen in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, marks the first foray into the Swiss market for French hospitality group Beaumier.
A luxury ski retreat and year-round hiking destination, Grand Hotel Belvedere dates back to 1912 and has long been popular with artists and creatives, including J.R.R. Tolkien. Entirely car-free, the 90-room hotel is accessible via the Wengernalpbahn cog railway, ensuring it ‘remains in tune with the mountain rhythms.’
The redesign by Complete Works, in collaboration with Clavien & Associés, comprises two cascading buildings that face the Jungfrau summit and weaves early 20th-century decor elements into the hotel’s lobbies and two restaurants. Each room and suite has been designed to reflect its Alpine surroundings using bespoke pine furniture, wood panelling and serpentine green bathrooms. Painstaking restoration efforts have seen original crystal chandeliers carefully restored and paint stripped back to reveal the original wood and painted frescoes beneath.
Courtesy Grand Hotel Belvedere
Courtesy Grand Hotel Belvedere
Courtesy Grand Hotel Belvedere
Courtesy Grand Hotel Belvedere
Courtesy Grand Hotel Belvedere
Courtesy Grand Hotel Belvedere
Photography: Lucas Dutertry / courtesy Grand Hotel Belvedere
Photography: Lucas Dutertry / courtesy Grand Hotel Belvedere
Photography: Lucas Dutertry / courtesy Grand Hotel Belvedere
Photography: Lucas Dutertry / courtesy Grand Hotel Belvedere
Photography: Lucas Dutertry / courtesy Grand Hotel Belvedere
Photography: Lucas Dutertry / courtesy Grand Hotel Belvedere
Courtesy Grand Hotel Belvedere
Courtesy Grand Hotel Belvedere
Courtesy Grand Hotel Belvedere
In stark but neat contrast, the hotel site will also become home to a new minimalist, mineral-heavy on-site spa designed by French architecture practice Saint Lazare. Set to open in Spring 2025, the spa will include four treatment cabins, a hammam, relaxation rooms and both indoor and outdoor heated swimming pools.
Arnaud Christian, founder of Complete Works, said: ‘It was essential for us to adopt the Alpine construction philosophy of this era, particularly in the design of all the furniture, made to measure from simple wooden elements as was customary.’
Valéry Clavien, owner of Clavien & Associés, added: ‘Even the spa, although built from nothing, blends into the decor, like a brutalist vestige over which nature would have gradually reclaimed its rights.’
