St. Peter's Anglican Church Château-d'Oex · Serving the English-speaking Community Since 1899

History of English Churches in Switzerland – Mont Pelerin

In April 1914 the visitors’ list for the Grand Hôtel du Mont-Pèlerin, nine hundred metres above Vevey, included “Rev. & Mrs Cooper Hunt, English Chaplain”. The Revd D. Cooper-Hunt’s home was at Boscombe, near Bournemouth. He had been coming out for the winter season for several years, and holding a Sunday service in one of the hotel’s salons. Then the proprietors gave him a site for a church next to the hotel. With £173 in hand, he began to build in July 1914, a few weeks before the outbreak of war.1

A resort above Vevey

Mont-Pèlerin was a new resort. A funicular climbed from Vevey through the vineyards of Chardonne, and by 1905 it was carrying crowds down to the town. The hotels were built in the first years of the century. In January 1904 the Grand Hôtel, still under construction, was destroyed by fire. Its architects said that, if the company decided to rebuild at once, they could have it finished by the middle of August. By 1907 there were at least three hotels on the hill: the Grand Hôtel, the Belvédère, and the Pèlerin Palace at Baumaroche.2

Their guests came in winter as well as summer, and many of them were English. Mont-Pèlerin was placed on the Colonial and Continental Church Society’s list of chaplaincies in 1904. In August 1907 the Feuille d’avis de Vevey reported a gift of land. This was at the request of the congregations, and “in the general interest of the development of the Pèlerin”. The Pèlerin Palace company had given ground for an English chapel and a Catholic church. Until they were built, the hoteliers had agreed on an arrangement. The Catholic service would be held every Sunday at half past nine at the Pèlerin Palace, and the English one at the Grand Hôtel. The hotels’ largest rooms, the paper added, had already proved too small for the numbers who came.3

The chaplains appear in the visitors’ lists. In December 1907 the list included a “Rev. Campbell (chaplain at Pelerin)”. Two winters later the list printed “Rev. D. Cooper Hunt Chaplain at Mont Pelerin”. Cooper-Hunt’s name appears in the lists, on and off, for the next twenty years.4

Walls without a roof

The chapel planned in 1907 was not built. Seven years later, on 27 May 1914, the commune of Chardonne gave notice of an application by “M. A. Schmitt, architecte, à Lausanne”. He sought permission “to build an English chapel at Mont-Pèlerin”, with objections to be lodged by 6 June. Building began that July.5

Then war broke out. The walls went up and the work stopped. The story is told in an appeal printed in The Record in September 1920, which asked for gifts to be sent to the Society or to Cooper-Hunt. After two years the walls were deteriorating, “and unless roofed in would have to be rebuilt”. The donors of the site threatened that “unless the church were finished the walls must be taken down and the ground restored to its former state”. Faced with that, Cooper-Hunt “decided to continue operations, making himself responsible”. The money was borrowed at three per cent. In 1920 about £305 was still owed, including interest, and friends of the Society were asked to help pay it off. “The church, when free of debt,” the appeal promised, “will be consecrated and handed over to the C.C.C.S.”6

We do not know when the debt was cleared or the chapel consecrated. An undated postcard published by Perrochet-Matile of Lausanne is titled “Mont Pèlerin – Chapelle Anglaise et Grand Hôtel”. It shows a small white chapel with an arched porch and a slender spire, standing in a meadow below the hotel. Cooper-Hunt went on coming to Mont-Pèlerin after the war, now in summer. He was staying at the Grand Hôtel in the spring of 1926. In 1929 the visitors’ lists named another clergyman, “Rev. Wilkenson, Chaplain of the English Church Mont-Pèlerin”.7

The standard history, Paul Schniewind’s Anglicans in Switzerland (1992), says the Society bought the chapel in 1906, but the newspapers tell a different story.8

The sale

The chapel belonged to the English for less than forty years. In 1949 the devaluation of the pound forced All Saints, Vevey, below the mountain, to close or hand over many of the smaller chapels around it. The general story is told on our page on the English churches in Switzerland.9

At an extraordinary assembly on Sunday 6 July 1952, the Protestant parish of Chardonne-Jongny voted to buy “the English chapel of Mont-Pèlerin” from the Colonial and Continental Church Society. The Feuille d’avis de Lausanne reported that it would be repaired and reopened for Protestant worship. Standing “in a place as charming as it is discreet”, it would serve “not only the inhabitants, but also the guests of the Mont-Pèlerin district”. The Tribune de Lausanne gave the reason under the headline “On achète une église”: the purchase was “motivé par l’accroissement de la station”, the growth of the resort. A later report credits the parish’s pastor, M. Dony, with the purchase and restoration of the chapel.10

Mont-Pèlerin today

The commune of Chardonne today lists two Reformed chapels, at Paully and at Baumaroche. Whether either of them is the old English chapel we do not yet know.11 For anyone who goes to look, the old postcard of the white chapel below the Grand Hôtel is the best guide.

If you know when the chapel was consecrated, or have photographs or memories of the English services on Mont-Pèlerin, please get in touch at info(a)stpeters.ch.

  1. Journal et liste des étrangers de Montreux, de Vevey, 4 April 1914, p. 27 (Scriptorium item 428967), Grand Hôtel du Mont-Pèlerin sur Vevey, “Altitude 900 mètres”; “English Church, Mont Pélerin, sur Vevey”, The Record, 30 September 1920, p. 11 (British Newspaper Archive BL/0006265/19200930, art. 043), read on the page image: services “held in a salon of the Grand Hotel, Mont Pélerin, for six successive winter seasons”; “A site for a church was therefore given by the proprietors, and with £173 in hand the building was begun in July 1914, just before the outbreak of the war.” The appeal gives his address as Moatfield, Glen Road, Boscombe, Hants. The postcard in note 7 shows the chapel beside the Grand Hôtel. ↩

  2. Feuille d’avis de Vevey, 17 August 1954, p. 4 (item 220114), “Feuillets du passé veveysan”, which has “le funiculaire Vevey-Chardonne-Pèlerin” carrying spectators to the Fête des Vignerons of 1905; Feuille d’avis de Vevey, 18 January 1904, p. 5 (item 209689), “Incendie du Grand-Hôtel du Pèlerin” (the architects Kœnitz frères offered to finish it “pour le milieu d’août”); Journal et liste des étrangers, 14 December 1907, p. 23 (item 429333), for the Grand Hôtel du Belvédère, the Pèlerin Palace Hôtel at Baumaroche and the Hôtel-Pension des Alpes. The Grand Hôtel itself does not appear on that page. ↩

  3. Schniewind, Anglicans in Switzerland (Berne, 1992), p. 106, for the CCCS list; “Les cultes au Pèlerin”, Feuille d’avis de Vevey, 17 August 1907, p. 7 (item 207549), our translation: “la Société du « Pélerin-Palace-Hôtel » a concédé gratuitement sur son domaine les terrains nécessaires pour la construction d’une chapelle anglaise et d’une église catholique. En attendant que ces constructions soient édifiées MM. les hôteliers de Baumaroche se sont entendus pour la célébration chaque dimanche et jour de fête, à 9 h. ½, du culte catholique au Pélerin-Palace-Hôtel; du culte anglais au Pélerin-Grand Hôtel.” ↩

  4. Journal et liste des étrangers, 14 December 1907, p. 23 (item 429333; Campbell is listed under the hotel before the Mont-Pèlerin heading, whose name was not read), and 18 December 1909, p. 25 (item 429925). A “Rev. et Mrs Cooper Hunt” also appears on 26 December 1908 (item 430012), but the hotel heading was not read. Reports in the Bournemouth papers of 1909 to 1912 appear to record him as appointed for the winter of 1909–10, “which he held last year”, and then for a third, fourth and fifth season; those items are known only from search snippets and have not been read in full. ↩

  5. Commune de Chardonne, “Avis d’enquête”, dated 27 May 1914, Feuille d’avis de Vevey, 2 June 1914, p. 1 (item 205093): “La Municipalité de Chardonne soumet à l’enquête publique la demande de M. A. Schmitt, architecte, à Lausanne, tendant à être autorisé à construire une chapelle anglaise au Mont-Pèlerin. Délai d’opposition : 6 juin 1914.” The Record, 30 September 1920, for July 1914. ↩

  6. The Record, 30 September 1920, p. 11. Contributions were to go to the Revd J. D. Mullins, Secretary of the CCCS, or to Cooper-Hunt at Boscombe. ↩

  7. Postcard no. 4169, “Mont Pèlerin – Chapelle Anglaise et Grand Hôtel”, Edition Art. Perrochet-Matile, Lausanne, undated; Liste des étrangers de Montreux et environs, 30 April 1926, p. 29 (item 429747), Grand Hôtel du Mont-Pèlerin; Liste des étrangers, 10 September 1929, p. 27 (item 429290). Cooper-Hunt appears in the lists in 1920, 1921–22 and each summer from 1925 to 1931; only the 1914 and 1926 entries were read with their hotel headings. ↩

  8. Schniewind, p. 106: “the chapel next to the Grand Hôtel du Mont-Pèlerin was purchased by CCCS in 1906”. Schniewind’s book is the source for most of these pages, but here the newspapers show something else. The English service was still being held in the Grand Hôtel in 1907 (note 3). A new chapel was applied for in 1914 (note 5), and that chapel was paid for by its chaplain’s borrowing (notes 1 and 6). Perhaps the Society bought or was promised a site in 1906 or 1907. The chapel itself was built from 1914. ↩

  9. Schniewind, p. 55 (Vevey). ↩

  10. “Achat d’une chapelle”, Feuille d’avis de Lausanne, 7 July 1952, p. 18 (item 31860), our translation; “On achète une église”, Tribune de Lausanne, 12 July 1952, p. 2 (item 70159). For Dony, the Feuille d’avis de Vevey of 17 August 1954 is cited, on his departure for Yverdon, as saying “l’an dernier, achat et restauration de la chapelle anglaise du Mont-Pèlerin”. That item has not been read. Its “last year” would place the purchase and restoration in 1953, a year after the vote of July 1952, so the date of the restoration is uncertain. ↩

  11. Commune de Chardonne, “Paroisses”, chardonne.ch, read 22 September 2026, which names the Reformed “chapelles de Paully et de Baumaroche”. Whether the Baumaroche chapel is the former English chapel is not established. ↩

Questions answered

Did the Anglicans build the English chapel at Mont-Pèlerin?
Yes, but it was built by its chaplain rather than bought. In 1907 the English service at Mont-Pèlerin was still being held in the Grand Hôtel. A report in The Record in 1920 says the chaplain, the Revd D. Cooper-Hunt, had held services in a hotel salon for six winter seasons before the proprietors gave a site. The chapel was begun in July 1914. When the war stopped the work, Cooper-Hunt made himself responsible and carried on with money borrowed at three per cent. Once free of debt it was to be consecrated and handed to the Society. Paul Schniewind's standard history says the Society bought the chapel in 1906, but the newspapers tell a different story.
What happened to the English chapel at Mont-Pèlerin?
The English chapel at Mont-Pèlerin was sold in 1952 to the Protestant parish of Chardonne-Jongny. The parish voted to buy it from the Colonial and Continental Church Society at an extraordinary assembly on Sunday 6 July 1952. The Feuille d'avis de Lausanne reported that it would be repaired and reopened for Protestant worship. The Tribune de Lausanne said the purchase was prompted by “l'accroissement de la station”, the growth of the resort.
Was a new English chapel proposed at Mont-Pèlerin in 1914?
Yes, and it was built. On 27 May 1914 the commune of Chardonne gave notice of an application by “M. A. Schmitt, architecte, à Lausanne” for permission to build an English chapel at Mont-Pèlerin. Building began that July, a few weeks before the war. A chapel had been planned in 1907 but was not built, and until 1914 the English services were held in the hotel.
Who were the English chaplains at Mont-Pèlerin?
A Revd Campbell was chaplain at Mont-Pèlerin in December 1907. By December 1909 the Revd D. Cooper-Hunt, whose home was at Boscombe near Bournemouth, was listed as chaplain. His name appears in the visitors' lists, on and off, for the next twenty years, and he was staying at the Grand Hôtel in the spring of 1926. In 1929 the lists named a Revd Wilkenson as “Chaplain of the English Church Mont-Pèlerin”.