This matchbox really threw me off with its 1970s-style design, because I never expected it to lead me to a historic building in the mountains of a remote Swiss village. Balgach is a municipality in St. Gallen, situated in the Rhine Valley near the Austrian border. Surrounded by vineyards and rural landscapes, it is an old farming village that was transformed by industrial and commercial activity, just like our hotel.

Hotel Bad Balgach is a historic establishment whose story dates back to the nineteenth century, although it truly begins when Heinrich Sauter commissions the construction of the inn (Gasthof Bad Balgach) between 1834 and 1836. From then on, the building passed through the hands of various families. Winegrower Jakob Nüesch installed a wine press there, and his son Johannes later expanded the business into a commercial winery. A spa, hospitality, viticulture and a story that continues to evolve.

It continued operating as an inn and restaurant into the twentieth century, with annexes gradually added to provide more hotel rooms and other facilities, until the complex was renovated in 2020–2021, the attached accommodation blocks were removed and efforts were made to restore the building’s historic character. Today it is a restaurant where wine continues to play a major role.

But what I liked most about this matchbox is how it depicts neither the beginning nor the end, but rather an intermediate frame in the life of a building whose documented history dates back to 1834 and continues to be written to this day.