Time seems to have stood still in the impressive 18th-century Palais with its smartened-up French garden, despite its close proximity to the busy city centre. The Hotel DuPeyrou was once surrounded by vineyards, and the gardens that belonged to it stretched all the way to Lake Neuchâtel.

The Hotel DuPeyrou, one of the city’s most beautiful buildings, lies amidst a well-maintained French garden. The wonderful manor house in a Louis XVI style was built over the period from 1765 to 1770 for Pierre-Alexandre DuPeyrou by a Bernese architect who had been trained in Paris. Together with its annexes, the hotel forms a typically baroque estate, ringed by gardens with a symmetrical design.

In the 18th century, the estate’s gardens stretched all the way down to Lake Neuchâtel, which at that time flowed around the area of Seevorstadt. The building beyond the street that has undergone significant renovations is the former greenhouse, from which the shore of Lake Neuchâtel could once be reached. This is where DuPeyrou had the first of the lake promenade’s trees planted.