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Origin and history

The Ruhl hotel, originally named Mercedes Palace, was designed in 1910 by architect Antoine Chanet for a Parisian sponsor, Mr. Gelly. The works, interrupted in 1911 for financial reasons, resumed in 1913 under the impetus of Henry Ruhl, a British naturalized Swiss hotelier. Opened in the same year, the establishment was distinguished by its unique luxury in Vichy: 350 rooms each with a bathroom, a rarity for the time. Its impressive architecture (9 floors, 2,296 m2) and its central location, between the Parc des Sources and the Allier, made it a symbol of thermal prosperity.

During the First World War (1914-1918), the hotel was requisitioned as a military hospital (n°75), welcoming wounded in addition to neighbouring hospitals. In 1914, a financial seizure — not a so-called German nationality of Henry Ruhl — marked his history. After the war, he changed hands several times: bought in 1920 by the husbands Giorgetti, renamed Palace Hotel and then Hotel Radio in 1922 (to surf the enthusiasm for radio telephony), before being integrated in 1937 in the Société des Grands Hôtels de Vichy (SGHV), led by Joseph Aletti.

The Second World War saw the hotel serve again as a military hospital (1939-1940), and then house ministries of the Vichy regime, such as the State Secretariat for Aviation (General Bergeret) from 1942. Released in 1944, he returned to hospital until 1945. The disaffection of the post-war thermal cures sealed its fate: transformed into a private residence (Palais des Parcs) since 1945, its 350 rooms were converted into 130 apartments. The only vestige of its past, the restaurant room, classified as a Historic Monument in 1991, preserves a neo-Louis XVI decor mixing stucco, glass windows and Art Nouveau motifs.

The hotel's architecture, typical of the Belle Époque, combines gigantism and elegance. The ground floor with bosses, balconies-loggias and the eight floors (including four basements) reflect the ambition of its designers. The dining room, a decorative masterpiece, features a vault in cloister arch decorated with painted glasses and Hellenizing canvases depicting dancers. The facades, unchanged since 1913, contrast today with their degraded state, despite the persistence of the building as one of the highest in Vichy.

A symbol of thermal fascists, the Ruhl Hotel also embodies the upheavals of the 20th century. From luxurious palace to anonymous residence, its history crosses those of the two world wars, German occupation, and the decline of spas. Its partial ranking in 1991 highlights the heritage importance of its interior decorations, the last testimonies of a time when Vichy competed with Paris or the French Riviera.

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