Jokes about Swiss banking notwithstanding, the Swiss certainly do seem to have a long tradition of financial nous and entrepreneurial flair, and the tourism sector is no exception. To the names of Badrutt and Von Salis, one must also add that of Joseph Seiler. If Seiler was alive today, he would doubtless have written a book with a title like 'From Soapmaker to Hotel Magnate: My Story'.

For that is, precisely, what he achieved. If St Moritz would not have become such a prized spot without Badrutt, the same could be said of Seiler in Zermatt — the pedestrians-only, skiing and hiking jewel of the Valais region in the very south of Switzerland.

That matter of the Matterhorn

Of course, Zermatt had lots going for it from the start, given its location at the foot of one of the world’s most distinctive natural formations, the Matterhorn. But, in the days before Swiss engineers developed their remarkable system of tunnels-and-bridges (providing rail transport to almost any destination in the country), it was isolated and not easily accessible.

Although the Matterhorn and surrounding mountains offered the ultimate test to the British climbing gentry, with picture-postcard views for those more prudent travellers who were happy to admire it from afar, the accommodation options were limited. Seiler and his children saw a gap in the market and, having scrounged together a bit of capital, built and developed numerous hotels in Zermatt and surrounds.

In 1853, the Seiler family purchased the Hotel Monte Rosa, a humble village inn boasting three hostel-style rooms that had been opened 10 years previously by the local doctor. Today, there are plenty of hotels in Zermatt, but the venerable Monte Rosa — somewhat expanded, so that it now has 47 rooms — remains the most gracious of them all. With views down onto Zermatt’s only church and up to the Matterhorn itself, the hotel has seen a lot of human traffic over the years and easily merits its 'Historic' status.

It is named after the Monte Rosa massif that looms over the eastern edge of the town; the summit, Dufourspitze, is the highest point in Switzerland at 4634m. Yet these mighty peaks take second place to the much lower Matterhorn simply because it is so visually striking, its steep ridges rising to meet at an improbably sharp point.

So there is an element of irony in the fact that, in 1865, it was from a hotel called Monte Rosa that Edmund Whymper set out on his successful quest to become the first man to conquer the Matterhorn: his achievement fixed the 'small' 4478m peak in the global imagination as Switzerland’s most celebrated mountain.

It’s a tiny historical detail, of course — but if that’s what piques your interest when travelling, you could do worse than to find some historical accommodation when you’re next in Switzerland.

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