Caux (

Montreux Montreux (, ; ; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, Swiss municipality and List of towns in Switzerland, town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, Alps. It belongs to the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut (district), Riviera-Pays ...

) is a small village in the

Canton of Vaud Vaud ( ; , ), more formally Canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts; its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms bears the motto "Liberté et patrie" on a white-green bicolou ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

which is part of the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

. It looks out over Lake Geneva from an altitude of 1000 meters. Overlooked by the Rochers de Naye summit (2000 meters), the Caux area was traditionally used only by cattle farmers. Late in the 19th century, local riviera hotels owners from Montreux and Territet became aware of the touristic potential of the Caux Mount. Simple inns came first, then the massive Caux Grand-Hôtel (1893), and finally, the spectacular Caux Palace Hotel (1902), masterpiece of Swiss architect Eugène Jost, gave Caux an international status, attracting the wealthiest and most famous guests including Empress Sissi of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

, Lord Robert Baden-Powell,

Sacha Guitry Alexandre-Pierre Georges "Sacha" Guitry (; 21 February 188524 July 1957) was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the boulevard theatre (aesthetic), boulevard theatre. He was the son of a leading French ac ...

Edgar Wallace Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 – 10 February 1932) was a British writer of crime and adventure fiction. Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at the age of 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was ...

, prince

Ibn Saud Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud (; 15 January 1875Ibn Saud's birth year has been a source of debate. It is generally accepted as 1876, although a few sources give it as 1880. According to British author Robert Lacey's book ''The Kingdom'', ...

, future king of

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was one of the List of richest Americans in history, wealthiest Americans of all time and one of the richest people in modern hist ...

and the

maharajah of Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is a city situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district. The city i ...

.The information in this section is drawn from Philippe Mottu’s historic book: Caux from Belle Epoque to Moral Rearmament, published by La Baconnière, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 1969.

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

prematurely killed the Caux luxury hotels. In spite of the efforts of the hotel's owners, the golden years of the

Belle Epoque Belle may refer to: People and fictional characters * Belle (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Belle (surname), a list of people * Southern belle, a stock character representing a young woman of the American South's upp ...

would never return and the 1929 economic crisis and World War II brought all the hotels to bankruptcy for the last time. During World War II, the hotels fell into disrepair and were used to house civilian refugees and interned escaped Allied prisoners of war. Finally some 1,600 Jews from the Kasztner train from Budapest found refuge there. In 1946 the former Caux Palace Hotel was purchased and renovated by the Moral Re-Armament organization (MRA), for use as an international conference centre to work on the reconciliation of European peoples. They held many workshops and brought together people at many levels of government and society. The historians Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson describe the MRA work as "important contribution to one of the greatest achievements in the entire record of modern statecraft: the astonishingly rapid Franco-German reconciliation after 1945.".Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson, ''Religion, the Missing Dimension of Statecraft,'' Oxford University Press, 1994 The former Caux-Palace Hotel is still today the home of

Initiatives of Change Initiatives of Change (IofC) is a global organisation dedicated to "building trust across the world's divides" of culture, nationality, belief, and background. Initiatives of Change was known as Moral Re-Armament (MRA) from 1938 to 2001, and the ...

's conference centre, which can accommodate up to 450 people. The building is operated as a hotel school for much of the year, the Swiss Hotel Management School, though it still houses the Initiatives of Change annual conferences each summer. The Caux Palace Hotel building can be seen from Montreux and the surrounding area. There is a small historical exhibition that is open to the public. Caux also has two churches, both built in the early 20th century: * The Protestant chapel, originally Anglican (1906), features an audacious timber frame, English style stained-glass windows (representing the deeds of the angels in the Bible), and a series of carved woods : angels on the side and foremost a singular boxwood altarpiece, representing a crucifixion in three dimensions, originating from

Bruges Bruges ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is in the northwest of the country, and is the sixth most populous city in the country. The area of the whole city amoun ...

. * The Catholic chapel (1907). Caux also offers a wide range of winter-related activities: the first bobsleigh world championship was organised in Caux in 1930. Alpine and cross-country skiing are easily practiced around the village, which also hosts an outdoor ice rink. The village of Caux can be reached by train from

, en route to the Rochers de Naye, or the Jaman Pass and

peak Peak or The Peak may refer to: Basic meanings Geology * Mountain peak ** Pyramidal peak, a mountaintop that has been sculpted by erosion to form a point Mathematics * Peak hour or rush hour, in traffic congestion * Peak (geometry), an (''n''-3)-d ...

. The area is popular with birdwatchers, as it lies along a major

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

flyway A flyway is a flight path used by large numbers of birds while migrating between their breeding grounds and their overwintering quarters. Flyways generally span continents and often pass over oceans. Although applying to any species of migrat ...

for birds heading south in the autumn.

References

External links

Villagers' societyCaux Museum
{{authority control Villages in the canton of Vaud