What led the hotelier Josef Anton Bon from Ragaz to choose Vitznau for his luxury hotel? In an idyllic setting on the shores of Lake Lucerne, not far from the legendary Rütli meadow in Switzerland, the location seemed perfect to this forward-thinking entrepreneur – not least because Vitznau had been attracting the emerging mass tourism market since the opening of the Vitznau-Rigi railway, Europe's first cogwheel railway, in 1871. Bon must have recognized that, in this golden age of tourism, a modern luxury hotel on the lake shore was just what was needed.
In the architect Karl Gottlieb Koller, who also came from Ragaz, he found a great master of his craft. By this time, Koller had already headed the construction of such famous establishments as the Bäderhotel in Bormio (Veltlin) and the Hotel Schweizerhof in St. Moritz. Later, he went on to create the stunning Hotel Suvretta House in St. Moritz and the Hotel Columbia in Genoa.
In spring 2009, the hotel was taken over by Park Hotel Vitznau AG and closed that same year to carry out the planned renovation works. The restored and splendid 5-star hotel opened its doors to guests once again four years later. The opening festivities were accompanied by music from the Vienna Boys’ Choir – a sponsorship project that the hotel group had already been enthusiastically supporting for years.
