Caux, Switzerland

File:Grand Hotel de Caux, late 19th Century.jpg

Grand Hotel in Caux

Caux is a small village in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland which is part of the Montreux municipality. It looks out over Lake Geneva from an altitude of 1000 meters.

Overlooked by the Rochers de Naye summit (2000 meters), the Caux area was traditionally used only by cattle farmers. Late in the XIXth century, local riviera hotels owners from Montreux and Territet became aware of the touristic potential of the Caux Mount. Simples inns first, then the massive Caux Grand-Hôtel (1893), and finally, the spectacular Caux Palace Hotel (1902), masterpiece of Swiss architect Eugène Jost, gave Caux an international status, attracting the wealthiest and most famous guests: Empress Sissi of Austria-Hungary, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, Sacha Guitry, Edgar Wallace, prince Ibn Saud, future king of Saudi Arabia, John D. Rockefeller and the maharajah of Baroda, just to name a few.

The Great War will however kill prematurely the Caux luxury hotels. In spite of the efforts of the hotels owners the golden years of the Belle Epoque will never return and the 1929 economic crisis and WWII will bring all hotels to final bankruptcy.

During World War II, the hotels fell into disrepair and were used to house civilian refugees and interned escaped Allied prisoners of war. Finally some 1,600 Jews from the Kasztner train from Budapest found refuge there [2].

In 1946 the former Caux Palace Hotel was purchased and renovated by the Moral Re-Armament organization (MRA), for use as an international conference centre to work on the reconciliation of European peoples. They held many workshops and brought together people at many levels of government and society. The historians Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson describe the MRA work as "important contribution to one of the greatest achievements in the entire record of modern statecraft: the astonishingly rapid Franco-German reconciliation after 1945.". The former Caux-Palace Hotel is still today the home of Initiatives of Change's conference centre, which can accommodate up to 450 people. The building is operated as a hotel school for much of the year, the Swiss Hotel Management School [3], though it still houses the Initiatives of Change annual conferences each summer.

The Caux Palace Hotel building can be seen from Montreux and the surrounding area; it is said to have been the inspiration for the castle in Disney's animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. There is a small historical exhibition that is open to the public.

Caux also has two churches, both built in the early XXth century:

• The Protestant chapel, originally Anglican (1906), features an audacious timber frame, English style stained-glass windows (representing the deeds of the angels in the Bible), and a series of carved woods : angels on the side and foremost a singular boxwood altarpiece, representing a crucifixion in three dimensions, originating from Bruges.
• The catholic chapel (1907), immediately visible upon arrival, a site worth visiting for its peaceful atmosphere.

Caux has also become famous through sport:

• The first bobsleigh world championship was organised in Caux in 1930.
• Since the first years of tourism in Caux, Caux has been equipped with an ice ring, allowing the public to skate on natural ice, weather permitting.
• Alpine and cross-country ski are easily practised around Caux.
• In the summer, numerous paths can bring ramblers from Caux to Rochers de Naye, the Sonchaux hamlet, the Col de Jaman (Jaman pass) and the Dent de Jaman.

The village of Caux [4] which is reacheable by train from Montreux is therefore known as a destination for tourists en route to the Rochers de Naye and the Col de Jaman. This is a popular area for birdwatchers, as it lies along a major migration flyway for birds heading south in the autumn.

External links

• Conference Centre Caux Initiatives of Change