History.

Following the first ascent of the Bietschhorn mountain in 1859, the idea was formed to build a guesthouse for the growing numbers of mountaineers and tourists. Joseph Ignaz Lehner from Gampel, with his innovative plans, approached the first team to climb the Bietschhorn – the Siegen brothers from Ried.

Building began in 1866 on the Hotel Nesthorn at the foot of the Nesthorn (as the Bietschhorn mountain was called in Lötschen in those days). The name Bietschhorn was later agreed upon with the representatives of the southern residents of the mountain, and this was consequently added on to the name of the hotel.

Shortly after the hotel opened in July 1868, it was doing brisk business. In the literature, the guesthouse was consistently referred to as small and simple, but also as “excellent and comfortable” and its owner praised as an “accommodating landlord”.

You can understand the efforts of the landlord when you glance at the guestbook. Immortalised in its pages are figures such as Lucie Walker and Margaret Claudie Brevoort, Leslie Stephen, Benecke and Cohen, relatives of the Stockalper family, and even the king of tyres, Michelin.

Further explanations about the development of the hotel and of tourism in Lötschen can be found in Dr. Werner Bellwald's commemorative publication on the Nest- und Bietschhorn Hotel and Restaurant – which you can get from us – or in“Memories of a childhood” by Josef Siegen; "Memories of a Childhood".