Château Gütsch

About this audio guide

This guide to Château Gütsch in Lucerne follows two obstinate builders a century apart: the innkeeper who turned a modest hilltop inn into a fairy-tale castle after fire nearly destroyed it in eighteen eighty-eight, and the Russian businessman who bought its ruin generations later. Along the way it covers the funicular that first hauled guests up the hill, two world wars that closed the building, and the guests, from a painter to a conductor, who kept climbing anyway. Best heard on the château's terrace, looking out over the old town below.