Grand Hotel Toplice

1850 – 1854: A hotel was built on the shores of Lake Bled where thermal springs had been discovered and where a bath had been built subsequently. The hotel was bought by Jože Luckmann, who named the hotel Luisenbad after his wife Luisa.
1875: The hotel flourished under the ownership of count Camillo Eichelburg. It was renovated and extended, giving it three floors, 40 rooms and a arge glazed veranda.
1889: The Luisenbad Hotel was sold to the renowned chef Gustav Valtriny. His wife Fanny was an expert in hotel management.
1891: Valtriny built the Schweizerhaus in the immediate vicinity of the hotel, which is known today as the Trst Hotel. There was a shop on the lower floor, catering for all the need of tourists at that time.
1894: A brochure of the Luisenbad Hotel from 1894 reveals that the hotel featured thermal baths, as well as a post and telegraph office, an oriental coffee house with billiards, a casino, and boat hire on the lake.
The hotel was a popular meeting point for the elite, and was visited by the King of Serbia and his entourage.
1919: The hotel passed into Slovenian ownership after the end of WW I. The new owner, Jula Vovk Molnar renamed it the Toplice Hotel, meaning thermal spring, due to the site being a source of thermal water. She also enlarged and modernised the hotel.
1921: King Alexander selected Bled to be his summer residence and most political and diplomatic activity moved here from Belgrade. When in Bled, the diplomats stayed at the Toplice Hotel.
1930 – 1931: The hotel was again enlarged and modernised in this period under the leadership of Austrian architect Franz Baumgartner. Upon completion in June 1931, the hotel comprised 123 rooms and had 212 beds. The hotel was constructed to the most modern standards of the time and was the most luxurious in the country. Jula Molnar renamed it the Grand Hotel Toplice. The most prominent feature of the hotel was its elegant lobby with large picture windows affording a magnificent view of the lake, island and castle.
1931 – 1938: The reopening of the hotel attracted the elite of the day in even greater numbers. The hotel was the scene of a variety of important conferences, and was used three times by the leaders of Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia. In addition to politicians and diplomats, the hotel was also popular among artists and celebrities.
1932: Jula Molnar invited the Czechoslovak national ice-hockey team to Bled and organised an international hockey game between Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia on the frozen lake in front of the Grand Hotel Toplice. The world champion Czechoslovaks won 24 – 0.
1938 – 1940: The Grand Hotel Toplice was the summer residence of the president of the Yugoslav government, and the government gathered here in 1940 to sign an important agreement.
1941 – 1946: The hotel was used as a headquarters by the Germans during the occupation. Immediately after liberation in May 1945, injured partisan soldiers convalesced here. The hotel reopened to paying customers on May 1 1946.
from 1948: Construction of the Vila Bled was completed to serve as the summer residence of the Yugoslav president Tito. Once again, the foreign ministry and its entourage of diplomats moved to Bled from Belgrade each summer and the dignitaries customarily stayed at the Grand Hotel Toplice. The hotel became used to being the setting of important events and meetings
from 1955: President Tito decided to spend his summers on the islands of Brioni instead of in Bled, and thus the various diplomats and journalists followed him.
1965 The Festival Hall in Bled was the scene of a world congress of writers, organised by the Slovenian Writers’ Association. Among the numerous literary figures who stayed at the Grand Hotel Toplice were Arthur Miller (former husband of Marilyn Monroe), and two other winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Ignazio Silone and Pablo Neruda.
1966 Bled hosted the first world rowing championships, due to the patronage of the Swiss Thomas Keller, president of FISA, the international rowing association, who was a prominent friend of Bled and the hotel. Under his influence, Bled was awarded two further world championships, in 1976 and 1989. Only Lucerne in Switzerland has so far hosted the world championships on more occasions.
1967 – 1968: The Grand Hotel Toplice’s slight decline relative to other excellent hotels in the country necessitated a further renovation. All of the rooms were equipped with new furniture and the suites were refurbished in an elegant period style. After redevelopment, the hotel featured 120 rooms and 203 beds.: The hotel operated as an independent company from 1947 to 1969, and then merged with others to form the Hoteli Toplice Bled.
1969 – 1980: The hotel continued to welcome prominent visitors, including the then president of Bavaria, Franz Josef Strauß (1969), King Hussein of Jordan (1978), Willy Brandt (1979), and renowned heart surgeon Chris Barnard (1982). Although there were fewer governmental meetings held at the hotel in the 1970’s and 1980’s, foreign businesspeople kept coming and this led to the hotel joining the exclusive Steigenberger hotel chain in 1972.
1981: The company merged with the Institute for the Promotion and Development of Tourism in Bled and operated within HTP Bled (the Bled hotel tourist company).
1984: The Government of the Republic of Slovenia permitted the use of the Vila Bled by tourists and the Vila Bled joined HTP Bled.
1990: HTP Bled restructured itself in 1990, and the Grand Hotel Toplice Bled was established as a company. It became a private limited company, the Grand Hotel Toplice Bled d.o.o., upon successful completion of the privatisation process in 2000.
1991 – 1994: Following Slovenian independence in 1991, the Grand Hotel Toplice once again found itself at the centre of diplomatic activity. Visitors in this period included South African foreign minister Pik Botha, Lord Carrington and Madeleine Albright. The latter took the opportunity to renew her acquaintance with the hotel, as she had, as a four-year-old girl, spent a family holiday here in 1946, while her father was a Czech diplomat in Yugoslavia.
1997: The hotel becomes A Select Member of The Most Famous Hotels in the World.
2000: The hotel was privatised in 2000, and became a member of the Sava group. The Sava Hoteli Bled are part of the Tourism Division of the Sava group and this family of hotels includes the Grand Hotel Toplice, the Vila Bled, the Jadran and the Trst hotels, as well as the Golf and Park hotels, the Golf Apartments, Bled Golf & Country Club and Camping Bled.
2001 – 2002: The most recent renovation of the Grand Hotel Toplice took place between November 2001 and April 2002. This ensured that the hotel remains one of the most luxurious in Slovenia and meets the expectations of the most demanding guests from around the world.

Madeleine Albright, Jaques Rogge, and many more

Zvone Spec