The Christmas holidays are among the periods of the year in which crans-Montana (pronounced “cran montanà”) is most populated.The small Swiss village in the canton of Valais, where on New Year’s Eve a fire in the Le Constellation nightclub killed at least 40 people and injured more than 100, is in fact a mountain resort known for its ski area, for its scenic landscape, for skiing and golf competitions, and for luxury tourism with slightly more affordable prices than other similar places, such as St. Moritz or Zermatt.
Dal Instagram profile of the common of Crans-Mountain
Crans-Montana is a town of around 10 thousand inhabitants, with more than 30 hotels, many residences for rent, dozens of clubs and restaurants. It owes its fortune to its location,on a plateau in the Alps which is rather sunny compared to the average for mountain resorts in Switzerland. For this exhibition, residences were built between the 19th and 20th centuries for those who wanted to spend the summer in the open air, as well as various health resorts.As he says the country’s websitethe foundation of Crans-Montana is traced back to 1893, when two friends inaugurated the Hotel du Parc, which is still open today and is one of the most luxurious.
The large ski area is highly regarded for its network of slopes and its views. Furthermore, compared to other renowned Swiss ski resorts, the cost of accessing the facilities is not too high: the price of the ski pass is around 85 euros per day, 50 euros less than St. Moritz. For this reason, even if in the past vrey famous people such as Jackie Kennedy, Alain Delon and Roger Moore went there, it has partly lost its reputation as an elite destination, and today it has the reputation of attracting tourism that is in some ways more immoderate and “vulgar”.
The exterior of Le Constellation, January 1, 2026 (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
– Read also: Identifying the dead in Crans-Montana is complicated
