Switzerland: a destination fit for a King

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The last Queen of Italy, Marie-José of Belgium, looking out over the Landesgemeinde in Glarus, 1949. Photopress-Archiv / Eugen Suter

The UK's Queen Elizabeth II met by jubilant faces in Geneva, 1980. Photopress-Archiv

Queen Juliana from the Netherlands enjoying some Swiss snow in 1948, shortly before her coronation. Juliana had also spent childhood ski holidays in Zermatt. Jeann Pierre Grisel / RDB

Prince Charles and Princess Diana on a ski holiday in Klosters, 1996. They would be divorced the same year. Keystone

The final stroll of Empress Elisabeth – or “Sissi” – of Austria on September 10, 1898 in Geneva. She would be killed in an attack later that day. BA-ARCHIV

Japanese Emperor Hirohito and Empress Kojun in the garden of the Hotel Beau-Rivage, Lausanne, 1971. Photopress-Archiv

Maria de las Mercedes and her husband Don Juan de Borbon of the Spanish royal house, together with the Italian duchess Mancini, observing a horse race in Gstaad, 1943. Keystone / Walter Henggeler

Japanese Crown Prince Akihito visiting the Jungfraujoch in 1953. Photopress-Archiv

King Saud of Saudi Arabia and his entourage, enjoying the Knie circus, in 1959. RDB

The Egyptian royal family, ice-skating in Switzerland, around 1935. Imagno / Austrian Archives

Prince Rainer of Monaco with wife Princess Grace and their children Albert and Caroline, around 1963. Pictorial Press Ltd

Shah Reza Pahlavi of Persia and Farah Diba with their children in St Moritz, 1967. Rue Des Archives

Thai King Ananda Mahidol lived a short life, much of it in Switzerland – here he is pictured in the 1930s. Photopress-Archiv

Visiting the 1928 Winter Olympics in St Moritz: Indian Princes Masir and Mumtaz Ali Khan with the dancer Maddy Encla. Akg-images

The last Emperor of Abyssinia Haile Selassie I, born under the name Tafari Makonnen, in Switzerland in 1965. Keystone

The Belgian royal family, including King Leopold III, in October 1945 in Pregny. Akg-images / Germaineimage / Germaineimage

Swiss president Ludwig Forrer (wearing the top hat) with the German Kaiser Wilhelm II, during a state visit of the latter to Bern, September 1912. Photopress-Archiv

Prince Michael, who would become King of Romania in 1927, with his mother Helena, Princess of Greece and Denmark, in 1925 in Aubonne. Akg-images

Queen Astrid and King Leopold of Belgium during a ski holiday in St Moritz in 1935. Later that year, a car accident in Küssnacht am Rigi would cost Astrid her life. Keystone / Iba-archiv

Austrian actor Josef Kainz with Ludwig II, the King of Bavaria, during a trip to Switzerland in 1881. Süddeutsche Zeitung Photo / Scherl

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Despite its republican tradition, Switzerland has always welcomed royalty from all over the world. Elisabeth of Austria, Napoleon III, Victoria, Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Egyptian royals, the last Emperor of Abyssinia – various kings and queens have visited the Alpine land over the years.

In 1939, for the National Exposition, the Swiss artist, Hans Erni, painted a fresco depicting “schwingen” wrestling, yodelling, and cheesemaking as a nod to almost every Swiss cliché. The title of the work read like a promise: “Switzerland – the people’s holiday destination”.

A more apt title might have been : “Switzerland – the holiday destination of kings and queens”. For most of the world’s “peoples” Switzerland was, and remains, beyond the average budget.

One of the first royal trendsetters was Queen Victoria, whose stint in Switzerland in 1868 sparked a subsequent boom in tourism. The Queen herself in fact had planned to come incognito, under the name of the “Duchess of Kent”, but when she arrived on the Rigi mountain, she was greeted with the refrains of “God save the Queen”.

Steamboats, hotels, and squares in Swiss towns would be later be named after Victoria.

Aristocratic tourists have always been greeted cordially, to say the least. When Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia arrived in Bern 70 years ago, 100,000 people lined the streets to welcome him. Children had the day off school, so that they could wave the emperor along with flags. Selassie, however, was less interested in the tourism than he was in finalising some arms deals.

When the much-loved Queen Astrid of Belgium died in a car accident in central Switzerland in 1935, the interest of the worldwide media was so strong that Swissair risked its first ever night-flight from Zurich to London to deliver the Associated Press photos. To commemorate the Queen, an “Astrid Chapel” was then built at the site of the accident. Visitors to the chapel arrived in such great numbers that the building later had to be moved to make space for the traffic.

Sometimes monarchs brought money in with them. Ten years ago, Spanish king Juan Carlos – today faced with accusations of tax evasion – was welcomed by the Swiss government, who lined up in the pouring rain for the King. The visit was live-streamed on national TV.

Pia Schubiger, a historian and curator at the “Forum Schweizer Geschichte Schwyz”, which is hosting the exhibition “The Royals are coming” says that the “incredible soft spot [of the Swiss] for monarchs might seem like a paradox. But the less a society has itself experienced royalty, then the more it can be interested or moved by the charm and glamour of a queen or king”.

“The Royals are comingExternal link” runs from 13.03.2021 to 03.10.2021.