Vevey's Legacy as a Wartime Haven for Artists and Exiles Endures
In the mornings, Vevey smells of damp winter leaves, coffee, and freshly baked croissants. From the promenade, Lake Geneva shimmers as if covered by a thin sheet of glass. Joggers pass by, dogs sniff at lampposts, and somewhere a Nordic walking pole clicks against the pavement. Then you find yourself face-to-face with Charlie Chaplin—a bronze statue in hat and cane, positioned by the water like a gracious host. Pigeons perch on him for a better view, children climb his legs, and adults pull out their phones for a quick snapshot. A few steps away, everyday life unfolds: shopping bags, schoolchildren, the faint chime of a bicycle bell dissolving into the crisp air.
On the shores of Lake Geneva—or Lac Léman, as it's known here—stories gather like light on water. For decades, artists have come to this stretch between Vevey, Lausanne, and Montreux, seeking distance, sometimes safety, often simply the quiet to create: Charlie Chaplin, Clara Haskil, Le Corbusier, Coco Chanel, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury. Their names still surface today—in street signs, competitions, statues, and the very spaces where their work took shape.
Chaplin spent a quarter of a century in Vevey with his family, strolling, writing, entertaining guests, and growing old. Now, his former villa houses screens and life-sized wax figures as part of Chaplin's World, a museum dedicated to his legacy.
It was in Vevey that Chaplin also befriended the celebrated pianist Clara Haskil, a Romanian Jew who had fled Nazi-occupied France. Here, she finally found what she had spent her life searching for: peace, security, time to practice, and cats to stroke. For the first time, she could live off her music and afford her own grand piano. Today, a street and a bus stop bear her name, and a plaque marks her former home. Every two years, the town resonates with piano melodies during the prestigious Clara Haskil International Piano Competition.
Neutral Switzerland provided safe ground for Haskil during the Nazi era. Many exiles were drawn to the Geneva area, where the presence of humanitarian organizations made the city a vital hub for support. Geneva also served as a waystation and meeting point for German communists en route to the Spanish Civil War, including resistance fighter Hans Beimler, who fell in battle in 1936.
Those tracing such histories will find rich material in museums like Geneva's Red Cross Museum or the Musée Général Guisan near Lausanne, dedicated to the general who led Switzerland's defense in World War II.
Composer Paul Hindemith, branded "degenerate" by the Nazis, only settled in Switzerland after returning from exile in America. He found refuge in Blonay, a village perched above Vevey, nestled against a jagged castle. A small cogwheel train climbs to the Les Pléiades mountain station at 1,350 meters, where cows graze indifferently against the dramatic backdrop. Hindemith's villa isn't open to the public, but a walk through Blonay makes it clear why he chose this place. The thin, still air carries the kind of focus that gives rise to art.
Architecture enthusiasts inevitably end up at the doorstep of Le Corbusier. In Corseaux, just beside Vevey, the modernist pioneer built Villa Le Lac in 1923—a slender, functionalist home, four meters wide and sixteen meters long, placed right on the lakeshore. Now a prized waterfront property, the location was once considered undesirable: mosquitoes, flood risks, drifting debris.
Le Corbusier crafted a manifesto of simple, functional living—tailored for his parents, complete with small lookout platforms for their dog and cat. An eleven-meter panoramic window frames the landscape. At just 64 square meters, the space never feels cramped; every centimeter was thoughtfully designed, stripped of anything superfluous. The villa, now a UNESCO World Heritage site, can be visited, maintained by an association that, with its modest annual budget of 43,000 francs, generates more fascination than many grand museums.
Coco Chanel is also regarded as an icon of modernity in her field. The fashion designer chose Lausanne—the quaint capital of the canton of Vaud—as her retreat. Initially, she stayed in the ultra-luxurious Beau-Rivage Palace hotel, befitting her status, before purchasing a 20-room estate above the city to enjoy peace and privacy. Her grave, adorned with five stone lions and white flowers, can be visited at the Bois-de-Vaux cemetery.
When rock musician David Bowie moved to Switzerland for a few years to take advantage of tax benefits, he bought the very house that had once belonged to Coco Chanel. In 1981, he recorded a song with the band Queen, whose members had themselves fallen for the nearby lakeside resort of Montreux. The musicians were part of a long tradition: the beautiful and wealthy have always adored Montreux's mild microclimate. Even Empress Sissi savored the lake views during her horseback rides.
Those looking to trace Queen's footsteps through Art Nouveau streets and along the palm-lined lakeside promenade can pick up an audio guide from Freddie Tours, featuring memories from Peter Freestone, the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury's personal assistant. The band cherished Montreux as an escape from London's chaos and the paparazzi—but they weren't just summer vacationers. They worked in the legendary Mountain Studios, where many famous jazz and rock artists recorded albums.
To find the Mountain Studios today, visitors must cross a parking lot to reach the unassuming side entrance of the casino. The door has become a shrine for Queen fans, with every square centimeter covered in tributes and messages. The casino's walls also hold musical history: a 1971 fire in the building inspired one of the world's most famous songs. Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water recounts the plume of smoke rising over Lake Geneva.
Inside, the Queen Studio Experience museum displays countless relics: handwritten lyrics, stage costumes, instruments, and a replica of the recording studio where Mercury, who died in 1991, laid down his final tracks. Montreux honored the rock legend with a monument—a three-and-a-half-meter bronze statue of Mercury gazing over the lake and the Alpine panorama, a terrestrial paradise that gave him tranquility and peace of soul.
