Summit in Switzerland on Ukraine: Burgenstock, venue of the talks. Place for VIPs and the Bielderberg group

Located at the top of an Alpine peak above the city of Lucerne and Lake Lucernearchitecture and «old fashion» luxury, a privileged place for celebrities of cinema and politics but also the scene of international intrigues. All this is the Burgenstock, the hotel that will host the first international summit on Ukraine. And while many wonder about the real effectiveness and purpose of the summit, it is worth telling the story of this place suspended between mountains and lakes.

The first nucleus of Burgenstock opened its doors in 1873, the Swiss Durrer family started the business. The clientele that goes up there is immediately of a high level, on the other hand the mass holiday period is yet to come. The beauty of the scenery («a postcard Switzerland»), Swiss confidentiality and neutrality definitively launched Burgenstock into the international Olympus after the Second World War. Testimonials of that golden age are first and foremost the great names of cinema. Sean Connery takes refuge there during the filming of 007 Goldfinger Mission, Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti I’m at home, Audrey Hepburn even celebrated her wedding in 1954 with the actor Mel Ferrer in the small church attached to the hotel.

The rooms of the Burgenstock are also crossed by politics. For example, he spent his holidays here the first chancellor of post-Nazi Germany Konrad Adenauer. In this regard, the Swissinfo website recalls a singular episode: five years after the end of the conflict and with the wounds of the Holocaust still open here the head of the German government and Chaim Weizmann risked crossing paths, first president of the newly formed State of Israel. But the “father” of modern India, among others, stayed here Nehru, former US president Jimmy Carter and Henry Kissinger.

The absolutely discreet, isolated position has meant that the Burgenstock has hosted the Bilderberg group meetingsexclusive club of international finance and politics ed emblem, in the eyes of conspiracy theorists, of dark and unspeakable secret intrigues (but the names of the participants in the meetings are promptly published in the press). The complex also hosted peace talks regarding the Cyprus crisis and the civil war in Sudan.

Today the Burgenstock resort is a complex of around thirty buildings: hotels, 68 suites, 12 restaurants, conference center, spa, swimming pools and a golf course. The ownership is no longer Swiss: since 2014 ownership passed to a Qatari company.