Belvédère Hotel, Furka Pass

The Hotel Belvédère is a former hotel 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. While initially serving as a small lodge, it 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. The rooms, 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.