History

The Kurhaus Nünalphorn was built in 1896 by the 31-year-old local hotel pioneer Franz Hess-Michel. The veranda was added in 1898, and in 1906 the building was expanded to its current size in the “Jugendstil”, or Germanic art nouveau style.

Franz Hess-Michel ran a self-sufficient operation with a farm that kept cows, horses, pigs and bees and included a dairy, bakery, juicing facility and a sawmill. He laid a broad network of walking trails and produced his own excursion maps for the surrounding area. The hotel had its own cricket pitch and tennis court, an open-air gymnasium and a walking space, enabling the guests to keep themselves in good shape.

This past is still clearly evident: the unique pergola leading to the hotel, the façade with its towers, the olive-coloured stucco work decorated with gold leaf on the ceilings, the beech parquet flooring inlaid with walnut, and the neorenaissance pictures under the veranda are just some of the witnesses to times gone by.