Source: the venue’s website, checked on 03/11/2026.
High above Lake Brienz in the Bernese Oberland, the Grandhotel Giessbach faces the Giessbach falls. Due to be demolished in 1979, it has belonged since 1983 to a foundation set up to give it “to the Swiss people”. Guests still ride up from the lake on the 1879 funicular.
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Horace Édouard Davinet designed it between 1873 and 1875 for the Hauser family of hoteliers. In 1979 the hotel closed and its owners planned to pull it down for a large chalet. The environmentalist Franz Weber then raised money across the country: in 1983 his foundation bought the 22-hectare estate and had it listed. The hotel reopened in 1984 and was fully restored by 1989.
For a team, the Belle Époque salon, a former ballroom opening onto the falls, seats 120 to 150 for dinner; the Davinet salon holds 80 theatre-style; the Seeblick room 40, facing the lake. From April to October, take the train to Brienz or Interlaken Ost, then the boat and the funicular; in winter the hotel opens Wednesday to Sunday and a shuttle runs from Brienz station.
Photo credits : qwesy qwesy (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0) ; JoachimKohler-HB (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) ; Schoepet (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) ; Hansueli Krapf (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) ; Krol:k (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) ; Viktor Heitmann (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
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