“The Inns at Zürich are notoriously dirty, high priced and ill attended.” At least that’s what travel writer John Murray declared in his 1838 guidebook Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Switzerland. Its publication launched the country as a tourist destination, and it also coincided with the opening of Hotel Baur, the first decent hotel in town. (In addition to 140 beds, it had stables for up to 40 horses.)
Founded by Johannes Baur, a shrewd baker from Austria, it fast became the place to stay, and some say that its popular roof terrace was the world’s first. Today, the stables are gone, but the hotel remains. Its rich and colorful history is woven through different chapters of its existence as the Baur, the Baur en Ville and, since 1908, the Savoy Baur en Ville.
