Giessbachfälle · Andreas Paul Photography

Passagiere sitzen an Deck eines Dampfschiffs neben einem Rettungsring, Bergkulisse im Hintergrund.

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The story

The Giessbach is a mountain stream with an impressive waterfall, the Giessbach Falls, at the eastern end of Lake Brienz in the Bernese Oberland. The high valleys and basins of the Sägistal–Faulhorn area are the source of the world-famous Giessbach Falls, which plunge in beautiful cascades over 14 steps and 500 metres down into Lake Brienz. A footpath leads beneath the waterfall, and you can walk it without getting wet.

At the foot of the waterfall stands the historic Grandhotel Giessbach, linked directly to the Giessbach boat station by the Giessbachbahn of 1879, the oldest funicular in Switzerland still in operation. Commissioned by the French hotelier family Hauser, the hotel opened in 1875 after two years of construction.

In 1979, after years of decline, the hotel closed its doors. The entire original complex was to be demolished and replaced by a modern concrete building. In 1983 the Swiss environmentalist Franz Weber, with the help of his association Helvetia Nostra and the Giessbach Foundation he had established, succeeded in acquiring the property and its 22-hectare grounds for the Swiss people and placing them under monument protection. Since then, every effort has been made to preserve the hotel’s original character. Its unmistakable charm attracts travellers from all over the world as well as day-trippers from all over Switzerland.

Guests can travel to the hotel from Brienz aboard the nostalgic salon paddle steamer “Lötschberg”, the only steamship on Lake Brienz. It was built in 1914 by Escher Wyss & Cie. in Zurich. Since its maiden voyage it has covered more than 540,000 kilometres. In 1967/68 it was converted from coal to oil firing, a job of 1,900 working hours. With a fuel consumption of 16 kg per kilometre, it burns 1,600 kg of heating oil a day over a route of around 100 km, compared with 2,000 kg of coal before the conversion.