show!
Choose other city guides
Comrehensive guide to Montreux, Switzerland
The major resort of the Swiss Riviera, Montreux resembles in its shape an ancient amphitheatre. Rising on the shores of Lake Geneva, the unique visual appeal of the city has attracted a number of notable refugees. One of them was novelist Vladimir Nabokov, who lived here for 17 years. Known for its balmy climate, the town is abundant in Mediterranean greenery, lushly growing in the town's lakeside parks, crammed with fruit trees, cypresses, magnolias, almonds and even palms. Having expanded from its original 19th-century core, the site experienced its heyday in the pre-World War I era, when it hosted such distinguished visitors as Tolstoy, Flaubert, Dostoyevsky and Ruskin.
Montreux was already an important settlement in Roman times, lying on the northern shore of Lake Geneva and on the Simplon Pass, where the roads to Aventicum, the old Roman capital, and the road into Gaul through Besançon separated. When viticulture was introduced to the region in the 12th Century, the sunny slopes from Lavaux to Montreux became important wine-growing properties. Following the Burgundian Wars in the 15th Century, the Swiss in Bern took over the region, meeting no resistance, which largely indicated the weakness of the Princes of Savoy. The Reformation period marked Montreux’s popularity among the Huguenots from Italy, who as artisans imported their skills and launched workshops and businesses. In the 19th Century, as the tourist industry became a principal commercial outlet, the grand hotels of Montreux became one of the distinctive features of the city, attracting plenty of wealthy Europeans and Americans.
The resort abounds in old houses on the crooked streets, along with a scenic quayside promenade. What’s more, Switzerland’s most formidable castle, the Château of Chillon, is set on the lake 3.2 kilometres south of Montreux, reached via a 3-kilometre lake path with impressive scenery. The majority of the castle dates back to the 13th Century and was built by Peter II of Savoy. Infamously, Chillon was the scene of sorcerers’ trials and Medieval tortures. François Bonivard, one of its famous prisoners, became the subject of Byron’s 'The Prisoner of Chillon'.
Another writer, the aforementioned Vladimir Nabokov, resided in a suite with his wife Vera at the Montreux Palace Hotel from 1960 until his death in 1977. This is also the city where he is buried. There’s also an interesting story connected with the legendary band Queen. Montreux is the home of Mountain Studios, which has been used by a long line of artists. In 1978, the band Queen bought the studio, and it’s still owned by their producer, David Richards. On the main square of the town, Place du Marché, there is a statue of Queen’s singer Freddie Mercury facing Lake Geneva.