Description

When it opened on July 7, 1902, the Caux-Palace was the biggest and most luxurious hotel in Switzerland. Among the guests in its heyday were John D Rockefeller, the Maharajah of Baroda (whose drawing-room, specially furnished in citron-wood, still exists), the violinist Ysaye and other great stars of music, opera and the stage, the thriller-writer Edgar Wallace, and Prince Ibn Saud, later to become King of Saudi Arabia. Olympic skating champions trained at Caux; world federations of bobsleigh, toboggaining and ice hockey were founded there; and the run from the mountains above, the Piste du Diable, gained a reputation as one of the toughest tests available for the new sport of skiing.