A city hotel
The locals have lovingly shortened the name of the Bellevue Palace Hotel at no. 2 Kochergasse in Berne to «the Bellevue». The elegant five-star establishment has made its mark on the identity of the Swiss capital city as much as the city’s Bundeshaus [Federal Palace], Münster [Cathedral], Zytglogge [Clock Tower] or Bärengraben [Bear Pit]. The epitome of Bernese hospitality, the Bellevue Palacecombines distinguished sophistication with engaging warmth and cosmopolitanism.
Its history begins in the mid-1840s, with a then-famous yet fairly modest Bernese inn called the Goldener Falken in Münstergasse, where a rack of hooks behind the counter in the tavern would have held the room keys. In 1865 the Falken landlord relocated his business to the newly completed «Bellevue» hotel in Kochergasse, a «proper» hotel whose concierge welcomed arrivals at a dedicated reception desk and specially trained staff fulfilled their guests’ needs and special requests. Eventually, superceding its smaller predecessor, the Bellevue, an imposing grand-hotel in the style of the Belle époque was built on the same spot from 1911–1913 to provide more spacious reception halls and parlours on the ground floor, and a piano nobile with very elegant rooms and suites (on the third floor). The brand-new luxury establishment was inaugurated on 27th November 1913, when two thousand invited guests attended the glamorous festivities at the Bellevue Palace Grand-Hotel.