Memorials & tributes

Site de la Villa Richelieu (Tchaïkovski)

Type

Historic site

Address

Avenue Claude-Nobs 7, 1820 Montreux (hôtel Royal Plaza)

Between 1877 and 1879, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky stayed three times at the Villa Richelieu guesthouse in Clarens, fleeing the torments of his Moscow life. It was there that, in March and April 1878, in the company of the violinist Iosif Kotek, he composed his Violin Concerto in D major in less than a month (today one of the most played concertos in the world) and worked on his opera “Eugene Onegin”. The place has changed face three times: the guesthouse became the Hôtel Continental, which was demolished and replaced in 1982 by the Hyatt, later renamed the Royal Plaza. It is that hotel which occupies the site today, to the west of Parc Vernex. The place is a reminder that the Riviera was a major creative refuge for nineteenth-century composers.

Related artists :Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovski