- Camille of Renesse-Breidbach
Camille Maximilien Frédéric, Count de Renesse-Breidbach (
July 9 ,1836 ,Brussels –June 12 ,1904 ,Nice ) was a Belgiannobleman , entrepreneur and author.De Renesse was born in 1836 at Brussels to an aristocratical family of Dutch descent. He got married to Countess
Malvina de Kerkove van Deterghem onNovember 10 ,1868 . While dwelling inSt. Moritz for recreation Count de Renesse got his vision to establish a giant Monte Carlo-like hotel resort with agrand hotel , baths and golf courses in theEngadin valley for the European aristocracy. After being rejected inCelerina ,Sils and finally in St. Moritz due to the Badrutt family's huge power, Count de Renesse succeeded in purchasing some 140 hectares of land inMaloja , at theLake of Sils .Between 1882 and 1884 he put his vision to reality by letting build the "Hôtel Kursaal de la Maloja" (nowadays
Maloja Palace ). But since just a few days after the grand opening acholera epidemic broke out in nearbyItaly , Count de Renesse had to file forbankruptcy after six months. Furthermore Countess Marvina died of a so-called "fat heart" inBasel in the same autumn. Nonetheless the hotel remained a lucrative location for Europe's rich people in the following decades. In 1891,Stanford University completed Encina Hall, a dormitory inspired by the Hôtel Kursaal de la Maloja's architecture. [ [http://histsoc.stanford.edu/pdfST/ST24no1.pdf Encina Hall: Leland Stanford's Grand Hotel] ]For a long time a rumour has got abroad that Count de Renesse, being drunk, fell of his residence, the Belvedere tower above the hotel, into the
Bergell valley; in fact he moved to Nice where he wrote some Christian books; there he died in 1904.ee also
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Castle of Renesse External links
* [http://www.wanderweb.ch/bergell/renesse.html The Renesse Affair - Article about the Count and the Maloja Palace (in German)]
References
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