Officials from Iran and the United States are expected to begin the next phase of talks to end the war in the Middle East on Sunday at a remote, high-altitude resort in Switzerland beloved by Hollywood stars of yore.
Bürgenstock is a mountain and home to the Bürgenstock Resort Lake Lucerne, overlooking the waters below. The resort has hosted some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people over nearly 150 years.
The property had traded hands several times before Katara Hospitality, a global hotel developer owned by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund, acquired it in 2007 and undertook an almost decade-long redevelopment.
“Switzerland provides a discreet and reliable setting to facilitate talks at Bürgenstock on the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Iran,” the Swiss foreign ministry said in a post on its website on Sunday, referring to an initial agreement signed last week.
The mountain is at an elevation of nearly 3,700 feet. The resort, at nearly 3,000 feet, holds hotels, residences, a spa, an alpine golf course, tennis courts, a museum, an infinity pool with a lake view, restaurants — including one specializing in Persian food — and more, across nearly 150 acres of forest.
The Grand Hotel Bürgenstock first opened in 1873. It was developed by the Swiss entrepreneurs Franz Josef Bucher and Josef Durrer. They bought the mountain property, leveled out a summit ridge, and built a getaway with a stunning view of Lake Lucerne and the Alps.
The mountaintop hotel, though remote and hard to reach, was an immediate draw. The entrepreneurs soon expanded, building more hotels and a funicular railway, etching out a cliff path and establishing a lift for viewing vistas that now whisks visitors 500 feet up in about a minute.
To get to the resort, visitors take a boat across the lake, misty with “sea smoke” created by the mountain ridge hovering above the water, to Switzerland’s oldest electrically operated funicular railway.
Its allure has long endured, with Hollywood stars of the mid-20th century often making the trek.
The actress Audrey Hepburn married the actor and director Mel Ferrer in the mountain chapel at the resort in 1954. Ms. Hepburn and the actress Sophia Loren, who has said she has spent her life in hotels, both had residences there and reportedly enjoyed hanging out at the golf club. In 1964, the resort was a setting in the James Bond movie “Goldfinger.”
The resort has also been an escape for world leaders over the years, including former President Jimmy Carter; Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter, Indira Gandhi, former prime ministers of India; David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir, former Israeli prime ministers; and Konrad Adenauer, former chancellor of Germany.
This will not be the first time that the resort has hosted diplomatic talks.
Among the most recent such gatherings were the 2024 negotiations to end Russia’s war against Ukraine. The conference brought together about 1,000 people, including 57 heads of state.
It was the largest diplomatic event in Switzerland’s history, according to resort representatives, and the Swiss authorities chose the location.
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