Homes, hotels & restaurants
Hôtel Victoria
- Type
- Hotel
- Address
- Glion
Opened in 1869, first under the name Hôtel du Midi, the Hôtel Victoria watches over Lake Geneva from the village of Glion, above Montreux. Its panorama is the very one that inspired Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s “Julie, or the New Heloise”. Between period furniture and a breathtaking view, the house embodies the Riviera’s Belle Époque — “Downton Abbey in Montreux”, as Le Temps put it.
A balcony over Lake Geneva
Glion, the artists’ panorama
From Glion, the eye takes in the whole upper lake. It is the same natural balcony that Brian May, the guitarist of Queen, was still photographing at sunset in March 2025 — “just another sunset over the lake, from Glion”. At the Hôtel Victoria, music marries that setting: a violinist has been heard there playing Astor Piazzolla’s “Libertango”, facing the lake.
Belle Époque down to the smallest detail, the hotel carries on a Riviera tradition: that of the great houses where the view over Lake Geneva was already, in itself, a kind of music.
A rumour around Freddie Mercury
A more recent story surrounds the hotel. In her book “Love, Freddie” (2025), the biographer Lesley-Ann Jones reports the account of a woman presenting herself as the daughter of Freddie Mercury; according to that account, the Queen singer is said to have spent time with her at the Hôtel Victoria, between 1990 and 1991, towards the end of his life. Let us be clear: nothing is established. The account remains unverifiable, and the hotel, when asked, has kept no record of any stay by Freddie Mercury and has confirmed nothing. We pass it on only as a rumour.
Related artists :Freddie MercuryBrian May