Belvédère Hotel, Furka Pass

The Hotel Belvédère is a historic structure located on the Furka Pass near the Rhône Glacier in Switzerland.

History
The Furka Pass road was opened between 1866 and 1867, and connects the Valais valley to the Uranaise valley previously cut by the Furkastock. In 1882, Josef Seiler built a lodge located in a hairpin created by the road. The beginnings are difficult for the lodge. It then expanded for the first time in 1890 to become a hotel. The construction of a gable roof with two additional floors gave the hotel its current appearance but the rooms, then without electricity or running water, were still relatively spartan.

In 1903, the building received a second transformation which propelled it into the Belle Époque and its first hours of glory. The hotel then became a luxury place and very popular for its panoramic location over the valley and the Rhône Glacier located, at the time, a few hundred meters from the road. The number of beds in 1907 then rose to 90.

During the first half of the 20th century, attendance at the Rhône glacier and the hotel continued to increase due to the arrival of the postal bus in 1921 and the opening of two new railway lines: the Furka Oberalp Railway and the Glacier Express in 1930. At that time, the fashion was then to mountain climbing. The walkers then give way to hikers who use the place as a starting point for hikes.

The hotel experienced a new boom after the World War II with the rise of the personal automobile. The hotel then becomes a destination for excursions to admire the Rhône glacier. The place then regularly welcomes prestigious visitors (the Pope John XXIII or Sean Connery).

Although the hotel became cult following its appearance in the James Bond film Goldfinger in 1964, hotel attendance decreased sharply during the second half of the 20th century: with automobile progress, crossing the Alps was now easily done in one day with just short stops. In addition, the Rhône Glacier had retreated more than a kilometer from the Belvedere, the view of it from the hotel became less spectacular. The hotel closed for the first time in 1980 and was purchased by the State Council of the canton of Valais with the idea of building a dam there which ultimately never happened. The hotel was then bought in 1988 by the Carlen family who restored the building to its original state and reopened it in 1990. However, the hotel has been closed again since 2015.

Tributes

 * The hotel is visible in the third episode of the adventures of James Bond Goldfinger, from 1964, directed by Guy Hamilton.
 * The hotel is visible on the cover of the book Accidentally Wes Anderson by Wally Koval.