Schloss Schadau - The Swiss Banker's Summer House That Became Everyone's Castle

There's a sandstone spiral staircase inside Schloss Schadau that is considered one of the finest in Europe. The walls are dressed in 170-year-old Parisian leather. The ceiling in the Bubenberg Salon is not actually wood - it just looks that way, painted with such virtuosity that the illusion holds even when you're standing directly beneath it. And for a while in the 1950s, preservation advocates wanted to tear the whole thing down.

That this neo-Gothic castle on the shores of Lake Thun survived is something of a minor miracle. That it now operates as a boutique hotel and restaurant - carefully restored, nationally protected, and awarded Historical Hotel of the Year by ICOMOS in 2021 - makes it one of the more quietly remarkable places to stay in Switzerland.

Where the Aare Meets the Alps

Schadau sits at a privileged spot on the southern edge of Lake Thun, precisely where the River Aare flows out of the lake toward the city of Thun. From certain rooms and from the garden terrace, you look directly across the water toward the Eiger, the Mönch, and the Jungfrau.

The castle is set within a 3.6-hectare English landscaped park - a public green space in which the Wocher Panorama (now the Thun-Panorama) sits to the west, and Scherzligen Church completes the scene. The park has been open to the public since the 1860s, making the whole estate feel less like a gated property and more like a living piece of the city.

You're a kilometer from Thun's main train station, though the castle's shuttle bus and the regional PanoramaCard transport network mean a car is entirely unnecessary.

Six Centuries, Several Near-Misses

The site first appears in written records in 1348, when a property called "The House of Schadau" was handed from one Swiss noble family to another as a feudal tenure. The von Erlach family held it for much of the following three centuries, eventually building a small walled castle around 1638.

A single octagonal tower near the Aare is all that remains of it - the rest was undone by an engineering project. In 1714, Switzerland's first major river-regulation works redirected the Kander river into Lake Thun, the lake level rose sharply, and the water went to work on the Schadau buildings.

The estate's second act began in 1837, when a Neuchâtel banking family flush with Prussian royal money acquired the property and commissioned two architects - one Swiss, one French - to build something worthy of the location. The result, completed in 1852, was a summer residence that blended French Gothic, English Gothic, Tudor, and Loire Valley references into a single building that somehow coheres. It was also a technical novelty: ducts built into the floors and walls fed air directly to the fireplaces, eliminating drafts throughout.

Then came the 20th century. The castle sat empty for years, a building consortium moved in, and demolition looked certain - until the city of Thun put the question to a public vote and the electorate said no. During the Second World War, vegetable fields were planted in the park.

In the 1950s, Swiss Heritage Society advocates called the building "an abhorrent amalgam of styles" and pushed again for demolition. A single expert opinion from an ETH professor saved it. National protection followed in 1974, thorough restoration in the 1990s, and a careful interior overhaul between 2018 and 2019 that finally turned it into the hotel it is today.

The Staircase

Before you reach your room, you will pass through the entrance hall and encounter the sandstone spiral staircase. It was designed by Dutch sculptor Joseph Hubert Verbunt (1809-1870) and is widely acknowledged as among the finest examples of its kind in Europe.

The tracery balustrade is ornate to the point of extravagance - flamboyant in the precise architectural sense - and the figurative carving throughout is executed with a precision that rewards close attention. The staircase was built to project wealth, and it accomplishes this without any ambiguity.

One useful piece of context: much of what appears to be one material at Schadau is in fact another. The corridor windows that look like oak are made of spruce, painted with considerable skill. The marble-effect corridor walls are plaster. The wooden ceiling panels in the Bubenberg Salon are stucco, the iron fittings painted on. The leather wall coverings in the Rougemont Hall, however, are exactly what they appear to be - and all the more striking for it.

The Restaurant

The kitchen at Schadau positions itself around modern interpretations of French Mediterranean classics, with a sensibility that leans toward honest cooking rather than elaborate performance. The menu moves from pot-au-feu and entrecôte café de Paris to house-made crèmeschnitte, with regional ingredients treated as a given rather than a selling point.

Lunch menus, a tasting menu in the evening, and a full à la carte selection cover most appetites. On Sunday, the kitchen shifts to a brunch format - an appetizer buffet, Sunday roast, and desserts, with sparkling wine included.

During the week, a castle breakfast served at the table is available by reservation, and afternoon tea runs on weekdays and Saturdays with organic Sirocco tea and a spread of savory and sweet items.

The restaurant occupies three ornate ground-floor rooms with 50 seats, and a glazed veranda adds 44 more. But the real prize is the garden terrace: 80 seats, open air, and a direct sightline across Lake Thun to the Eiger, the Mönch, and the Jungfrau. On a clear day, dining outside here feels almost unreasonably good.

Bar Au Milieu

The bar sits at the center of the castle's ground floor - its name is entirely literal - and it doubles as the hotel reception. The wine list is extensive, but the house specialty is sherry, with a notably large selection of sherries and ports available alongside sherry cocktails and classic cocktails.

The bar serves food continuously, so if you arrive between meal services you're not stranded. It functions as the social heart of the building in the way that good hotel bars are supposed to but often don't.

Rougemont Hall

The former Grand Salon is the most formally dressed room in the castle. Its walls are covered in genuine leather, produced around 1850 by Parisian manufacturer Dulud. The original decoration involved gold lacquer over the leather motifs; what you see today is oxidized silver leaf, which has acquired its own character over time.

The Rougemont Hall seats up to 70 for banquets and 30 for seminars, and it has unobstructed lake views toward the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau.

The Rooms

The hotel has nine rooms across two upper floors, accessible by both the famous spiral staircase and a modern elevator. All rooms have original wood floors, Swiss mattresses, free WiFi, and access to the wellness area - sauna and steam bath - at the neighboring Hotel Seepark, a two-minute walk away.

Double Room Park View

These rooms sit in the oriel section of the castle, with large windows looking out over the landscaped English park. At around 30 to 35 square meters, they're comfortable rather than expansive, with a double bed, a sitting area with chaise longue, and a small desk.

One of the two rooms has a slightly smaller bathroom but gains a dressing area in return. Park view rather than lake view, which at Schadau means waking up to mature trees and open meadow rather than mountains - a gentler start to the morning, and none the worse for it.

These corner rooms are the most dramatically situated in the hotel. At around 35 square meters, they offer two balconies - one facing the lake and the Alps, the other facing the Aare - which is a genuinely unusual arrangement.

The bathroom runs to about 10 square meters, with a double washbasin, separate shower, and separate toilet.

On a clear day, you have direct views of the Eiger, the Mönch, and the Jungfrau from one balcony while the river moves quietly past on the other side. If you're going to spend money on a room at Schadau, this is probably where to spend it.

The two tower suites are the largest rooms in the hotel at 44 to 46 square meters, and their geometry follows the castle's tower structure, which gives the living room a distinctive rounded shape. The bedroom and living area are separate, the latter furnished with a sitting area, small desk, and chaise longue. One suite has a balcony.

The lake views toward the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau are direct and unobstructed. The bathrooms are on the smaller side - a function of the 19th-century floor plan rather than any oversight - but have daylight. Architecturally, these rooms give you the most concentrated experience of what makes Schadau unusual.