 "Over 90 countries and groups have said they will attend the meeting on 15 and 16 June. Reuters")
This weekend, the Ukraine peace summit will take place at a famous resort in Switzerland.
The Burgenstock resort near the city of Lucerne has over the past 150 years played host to celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin, Audrey Hepburn and Sean Connery.
David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir and Jimmy Carter have also spent time here.
This weekend, the resort will see leaders from over 90 nations and organisations in attendance.
Playground of rich and famous
The resort could be something out of a picture postcard.
It was here that Charlie Chaplin met Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1953.
Accompanying Nehru was his daughter Indira – the future Indian prime minister.
Actor Audrey Hepburn married her first husband Mel Ferrer in the Burgenstock’s chapel in 1954.
They made the luxurious destination their home, living in the resort’s Villa Bethania.
Hollywood siren Sophia Loren also owned a chalet on the Burgenstock – now the site of its Persian restaurant – while Queen Ingrid of Denmark was among the hotel’s visitors.
Sean Connery lived here while shooting the iconic 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger.
Connery, who many call the greatest Bond ever, spent a month at the resort and shooting scenes on the mountain that were immortalised on the silver screen.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe resort is also a hit with politicians.
Israeli prime ministers David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir visited, while West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer spent July and August 1950 here.
Jimmy Carter also had a stay at Burgenstock before becoming US president.
Picture perfect
Eight kilometres from Lucerne in central Switzerland, the Burgenstock mountain dominates the centre of the lake and is surrounded by water on three sides, making it easy to seal off.
The mountain’s peak is 1,128 metres above sea level and the northern slope plunges nearly 700 metres down to Lake Lucerne.
The Burgenstock resort sits 450 metres above the water on a ridge below the peak.
It comprises four main hotel buildings, from the Belle Epoque to the ultra-modern, plus seven restaurants, along with other villas and residences.
While the contemporary lake view royal suite could set guests back more than 16,000 Swiss francs ($17,850) a night – before fees and taxes – a simple chalet room can cost 320 francs.
The brainchild of sawmill business partners Franz Josef Bucher and Josef Durrer, the Grand Hotel opened in 1873.
The Palace Hotel was added in 1903.
In total, there are 360 rooms and suites, and up to 700 staff.
The Hammetschwand Lift, a rocket-shaped metal lattice tower and the highest outdoor lift in Europe shoots up 152 metres to the mountain summit.
Katara Hospitality, owned by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, took over in 2007 and completed a revamp a decade later.
Most regular guests will arrive by road, or by catamaran from Lucerne followed by a funicular railway, 929 metres long and rising 434 metres.
The Buochs Airport at the foot of the mountain can also take private jets and helicopters.
Third-generation Swiss hotelier Chris Franzen, who took over as the Burgenstock’s managing director in April, said he was accustomed to hosting prominent personalities.
“But not 80 to 100 at once,” he told Swiss news agency Keystone-ATS.
It will meanwhile be up to the Swiss foreign ministry to decide which leaders get which rooms.
A history of summits
This weekend’s Ukraine peace summit will not be the first time world issues are hashed out at the Burgenstock.
The resort hosted the secretive annual Bilderberg meeting of global power brokers in 1960, 1981 and 1995.
The Sudanese government and the main rebel group agreed a six-month ceasefire in the Nuba Mountain region in 2002 at the Burgenstock, paving the way for a peace agreement in 2005.
In 2004, four-way talks were held on a plan to reunify Cyprus, presided over by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, but failed to produce an agreement.
It was to have hosted the World Economic Forum’s 2021 summit amid the Covid-19 crisis, but the annual gathering of the world’s political, economic and business elite was shifted to Singapore before being cancelled altogether.
With inputs from AFP