Town Halls and Public Buildings to visit Montreux

The story begins in November 1881, with the inauguration of the Kursaal casino, then more of an English-style concert hall. In 1883, a gambling game called "les petits chevaux" was introduced. From 1914 to 1945, the Kursaal's famous 6-piece orchestra played non-stop. In 1962, the first Venetian-style dance hall, the Lido, was inaugurated, and in 1966, the Montreux Jazz Festival celebrated its first edition here, as well as the twenty-six that followed. On December 4, 1971, the Casino Kursaal burned down during a Frank Zappa concert. The Mothers of Invention orchestra cancelled all its European concerts. In memory of this sad event, Deep Purple composed the song Smoke on the Water, written that very night in the stairwell of the Grand Hotel in Territet, where they were staying. Three and a half years later, the casino reopened. It offers gambling, shows, banquets, a restaurant, a nightclub, a cinema, a swimming pool, a yacht club, as well as a recording studio that has played host to some of the world's most famous artists, including David Bowie, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Michael Jackson, to name but a few.

The 10,000^m2 casino features slot machines, table games, electronic games and poker, as well as three restaurants, two bars, two terraces, a superb swimming pool and the former Mountain Studios, an area dedicated to the band Queen. And don't forget that the casino wins.... extremely often...