Piz Gloria
Image by Julius Silver from Pixabay
What was once the world’s highest rotating restaurant inspired a James Bond film. When Ian Fleming penned the novel On Her Majesty’s Secret Service In 1963, he created a mountaintop hideout for his villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, (the villain after whom the Austin Powers criminal Dr. Evil was based) a criminal mastermind bent on world domination. The hideout contains an allergy clinic in the book, and resides in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where the local language is Romansh and the word piz means mountain peak.
When the novel was set to be turned into a movie in the late 1960’s, the production team discovered a restaurant under construction in the Bernese Oberland. Though it was not the location chosen for the novel, and Romansh is not spoken in the region, the production team offered to contribute heavily to to completion of the restaurant in exchange for exclusive filming rights on the location. The film was released in 1969, and the restaurant decidedly retained the name Piz Gloria in gratitude of the huge contribution to its success by the film. It continues to acknowledge the film’s role in its commercial success with a James Bond themed exhibit on the lower level.
Today, the restaurant is well known for its rotating base, which takes an hour to complete a full turn, giving visitors a complete view of the snow-capped mountains as they dine on fine cuisine. A walkway leads outside from the restaurant to a large balcony that serves as a lookout point during rotation.
When the novel was set to be turned into a movie in the late 1960’s, the production team discovered a restaurant under construction in the Bernese Oberland. Though it was not the location chosen for the novel, and Romansh is not spoken in the region, the production team offered to contribute heavily to to completion of the restaurant in exchange for exclusive filming rights on the location. The film was released in 1969, and the restaurant decidedly retained the name Piz Gloria in gratitude of the huge contribution to its success by the film. It continues to acknowledge the film’s role in its commercial success with a James Bond themed exhibit on the lower level.
Today, the restaurant is well known for its rotating base, which takes an hour to complete a full turn, giving visitors a complete view of the snow-capped mountains as they dine on fine cuisine. A walkway leads outside from the restaurant to a large balcony that serves as a lookout point during rotation.
