The Rebirth of the Hotel des Bergues
Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues owes its name to a rich German merchant and financier by the name of Hans Kleberger (1486 – 1545), who owned several properties in Geneva, on both sides of the Rhone River. Although he rarely stayed in Geneva for any length of time, he was renowned for his generosity, both to Geneva and to Lyons, where he resided and where he received his nickname “the Good German”. A friend of Erasmus, his portrait was done by Albrecht Dürer and can now be seen in Vienna.
In 1565, the property covering the ground where the Hotel stands today was eventually sold by his impoverished son to the City of Geneva. Locals had taken to calling the site “En Clébergue”, a name which was eventually shortened to “Bergues”.
Tourism steams in
Until the second quarter of the 19th century, the right bank of Geneva remained a manufacturing suburb of some importance, with watch-making and textile printing shops. The arrival of the first steamboat, in 1823, brought about a dramatic change in the scenery.
At that time, travellers arriving by water were met by industrial slums and mean streets surrounding the landing stage. The City authorities quickly decided to carry out a programme of urbanisation and embellishment. In the course of the next ten years, the waterfront was entirely redesigned by an engineer, Colonel Guillaume-Henri Dufour, whom Swiss history remembers best for his leadership as Commander-in-Chief of the Swiss Federal Army.
Dufour also designed the Pont des Bergues, which crosses the Rhone in two stages a few yards downriver from the entrance to the Hotel. Regarded as an architectural masterpiece, the bridge was expected to help bring about economic development to the right bank of the river. But some visitors were none too pleased with the embellishment. French author Victor Hugo wrote “Geneva has lost much and believes, alas!, it has won much!”
Neo-classicism, Geneva style
These developments inspired, in 1829, the foundation of the Société des Bergues in order to build a hotel, which would be “simple, of pure style and free of superfluous ornamentation”. With such guidelines, the building could not be anything but neo-classical. Geneva at that time was obsessed with Ancient Greece and the Renaissance, and local stylists favoured columns and pediments supported by pilasters. Perhaps the trend towards this style was inspired by Geneva architects rounding off their studies in Italy or in Paris. Whatever the reason, the colonnades and pediments added to classical 18th century buildings are a distinctive trait of local architecture from that period.
Opened on May Day in 1834, the largest hotel in Switzerland sported an extensive ground floor for shops and a café-restaurant, three hotel floors and an attic floor to accommodate staff. From the beginning, the guest accommodation could be grouped or divided to meet client’s inclinations.
A hub of diplomacy
In 1917, the interior of the Hotel was totally refurbished and a further storey was added. Of the original construction only the foundations, the outer walls and the beams upholding the storeys remained. In the wake of the installation in Geneva of the newly-born League of Nations, Hotel des Bergues became the headquarters of the French delegation. Aristide Briand hosted in many meetings in the Hotel which historians deem to have exerted a greater influence on international relations than the formal sessions held in the Palais des Nations.
In 1967, a new wing was added to the Hotel.
Keeping in spirit
The inspired restoration, engineered by the celebrated French interior architect Pierre-Yves Rochon, sought to recapture the spirit of this distinguished neo-classical building and, in true Four Seasons fashion, no effort has been spared to offer the visitor a décor of understated refinement. The uncluttered entrance hall sets the tone. The deceptive simplicity of the patterned marble floor, the symmetry of the four monumental columns, the rhythm of the arches, the sky-like cupola, the elaborate staff decorations, hand-gilded in places, express a restrained exuberance that captures the Hotel’s timeless personality.
Superb craftsmanship
For ten months, more than 170 workers were on site daily. The most complex work was the creation of the stucco décor which was awarded, after an international request for proposals, to two Geneva family firms. This delicate technique, rarely done nowadays, is only taught in Paris, Milan and Saint-Etienne (France).
In the entrance hall, the shell-shaped niche reminiscent of Boticelli, one meter in diameter, was worked out piece by piece before being cast in its entirety. The elaborate cornices, rounded or curved, were cast on site, allowing the painters to work on surfaces requiring only minimal filling. In the famous Salle des Nations ballroom, the fluted cornices, broken in places, were recreated following the exact same pattern.
The decoration of the restaurant Il Lago also draws on now disused techniques. The wallpaper of the first of the two rooms which make up the restaurant, depicting a medieval Italian scenery, has been entirely hand painted.
With its thoughtful interior restoration, Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues is reborn as a historical landmark with a spirit unmatched by any other hotel in the country.
