Regina Hôtel Wengen Vintage Travel Poster
– 1929
The Regina Hôtel is located in a dominant position in the center of the car-free village of Wengen. It offers spectacular views of the Jungfrau and Silberhorn mountains as well as the Lauterbrunnen valley with its impressive waterfalls. The fabulous Victorian-style hotel has welcomed its well-heeled guests from all over the world since 1894.
Wengen was an Alpine farming village for over 500 years before the British started to arrive on the Wengernalp Railway at the end of the 19th Century. The first hotel built in the resort was the Hotel Alpenrose in 1887 followed three years later by the Bellevue Wengen Hotel. At this time, Wengen was already becoming a well-known summer tourist destination. The introduction of the Wengernalpbahn, (Wengernalp Railway), to the rural village in 1893 brought with it a significant growth in tourism. Several more hotels were built to cater to the demand, with the Regina Hotel being one of them. In 1910, the Wengernalp railway line stayed open through the winter and for the first time, carried its first significant quantity of winter tourists to the region.
Wengen is set on a ledge about 500m above the Lauterbrunnen Valley. It is one of the grand old alpine resorts, full of history, character, chocolate box buildings and home to some of the most spectacular views in Europe. Today, the Hotel Regina is a historic, Victorian-style hotel dating back to the 19th century. The hotel has a spacious open lobby and bar area has a large, roaring fire, often with live, piano music and has gained itself a reputation for excellent food and wines and its wellness facilities.
Waldemar Theophil Fink
Waldemar Theophil Fink was born in Bern, Switzerland in 1883. Having completed an apprenticeship as a decorative painter, he continued his studies in Munich at the Weinhold-Schildknecht Art School. From 1909 to 1922 Fink lived in Adelboden and in Bern, from where he would travel into Swiss Alps to produce the many Alpine landscape oil on canvas paintings he is perhaps best known for. Fink was also a serious mountaineer and alpinist. In fact, on January 26, 1920, Fink took part in the Oberland ski race in Adelboden. He finished sixth.
In 1921, he was commissioned to design the Adelboden ski racing poster with the cross-country skier skiing through the Adelboden landscape wearing a yellow sweatshirt. The Hotel Regina in Wengen poster followed in 1929, with versions created for the English and French tourist markets.
Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears, or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.
The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £15. So you can bag a bargain of print and frame for a great price.
