Crans-Montana and James Bond alias 007

26 December 2021

The French-speaking village of Crans-Montana (Canton of Valais) did not exist in the mid-nineteenth century. The Rhone Valley near Sierre had been inhabited since the Bronze and Iron Ages, and the Celts and Romans also left their traces; however, the mountains were not cultivated until centuries later.

Nearby Lens had about a dozen houses and farms around 1150. The location of today’s Crans-Montana on the Haut-Plateau remained uninhabited for much longer. The first buildings are only traceable from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The breakthrough came at the end of the 19th century. English tourism in other areas of Switzerland often took place in villages, such as St. Moritz or Davos, or in villages and towns along lakes, for instance, Lake Geneva or Lake Neuchâtel.
Crans-Montana was a plain, the Haut-Plateau, but no village. Farmers grazed their cattle, and hunters regularly came for the hunt.

It changed after 1890, when an increasing number of travellers stayed overnight in Sierre. The mountains and the Haut-Plateau attracted attention, and in 1893, entrepreneurs built the first hotel on the Haut-Plateau, Hotel du Parc, in Montana.
Montana became a health resort and a small town for winter sports.

From the 1920s onward, various sports made the village a year-round destination. The Alps and the Haut-Plateau offer a range of activities, including golf, horseback riding, tennis, hiking, excellent cross-country skiing opportunities, and other sports facilities.
The golf club has had the highest 18-hole course since 1908. It has been named after the legendary Spanish golfer Severiano Ballesteros (1957-2011).

The villages of Crans and Montana merged to form a single municipality in 1929. Life on the Haut-Plateau, with its healthy air and stunning views, is appreciated by film stars, bankers, artists, top athletes, and other celebrities.

For example, Crans-Montana has been the home since 1996 and the place of death in 2017 of the world’s most famous secret agent.

(Source: www.crans-montana.ch).