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Eva Elisabeth · 08-29-2020, 09:42 AM

This place's history involves three murders and a First Lady who drafted a declaration that fits well in here. What place is it, and which First Lady stayed there?

(No Google image search svp.!)

RJNorton · 08-29-2020, 09:58 AM

Is it one of the hotels where Mary Lincoln stayed during her European trips?

Eva Elisabeth · 08-29-2020, 10:11 AM

Not Mary Lincoln, Roger!

RJNorton · 08-29-2020, 11:04 AM

Is it in Europe?

J. Beckert · 08-29-2020, 11:55 AM

I LOVE this game!!!

I'll guess the site of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinard in Sarejevo.

Eva Elisabeth · (This post was last modified: 08-29-2020 11:57 AM by Eva Elisabeth.)

Yes, in Europe.

(08-29-2020 11:55 AM)J. Beckert Wrote: I LOVE this game!!!

I'll guess the site of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinard in Sarejevo.

Great guess, Joe, but not him. The most VIP victim was an Empress.

RJNorton · 08-29-2020, 12:20 PM

Could the First Lady be Eleanor Roosevelt?

Eva Elisabeth · 08-29-2020, 12:39 PM

Very good, Roger, that is correct. I have to correct the number of the murders - there were only two, the third VIP death was obviously happened naturally.

Eva Elisabeth · 08-29-2020, 01:50 PM

Now, where is the place? And you get an extra point if you can figure what she did there.

Hint #1: The place is in Europe, but not EU.
Hint # 2: The city is one headquarter of an organization that had to do with Roosevelt's "project".

Rogerm · 08-29-2020, 01:59 PM

Is this in Vienna, Austria?

Eva Elisabeth · 08-29-2020, 02:10 PM

(08-29-2020 01:59 PM)Rogerm Wrote: Is this in Vienna, Austria?

Good guess, Roger, but Austria is an EU member.

Hint #3: The country is a neighbor to Austria, and the city, as you can see, is seated at a lake by the same name as the city.

RJNorton · 08-29-2020, 02:35 PM

Did Eleanor Roosevelt's "project" have to do with equal rights for women?

Eva Elisabeth · 08-29-2020, 02:58 PM

Excellent guess, Roger, actually the project dealt with equal rights for all people.

Steve · 08-29-2020, 03:30 PM

Geneva, Switzerland?

Eva Elisabeth · (This post was last modified: 08-29-2020 07:41 PM by Eva Elisabeth.)

Very good, Steve, that is correct!

The place is the Beau-Rivage Hotel in Geneva that actually opened exactly one day prior to Lincoln's assassination, on April 13, 1865. It is still owned and run by the great-grandson of the founder and has several times been a fascinating setting in history.
In 1873, Charles II, Duke of Brunswick, died at the Beau-Rivage. The city of Geneva inherited 20 million gold francs from him. This money contributed to the construction of many buildings in Geneva, including its main theatre (Le Grand Théâtre).
On September 10, 1898, Austrian Empress Sissi was stabbed to death by Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni, just when she left the Beau-Rivage on foot to catch the steamer for Montreux. She was carried back to the Beau-Rivage where she died soon afterwards. The reason of her visit btw. was a meeting with Baronesse Rothschild.

Lucheni's preserved head until 2000 was on display in a Vienna pathological museum. In 1987, a German politician was found dead in the bathtub of the suite where he stayed. The cause and circumstances of his death remain a mystery until today.
Eleanor Roosevelt was another famous guest, and during her stay she drafted parts of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in her suite.
The Beau-Rivage was also the setting of the birth of former Czechoslovakia, whose independence from the Austrian - Hungarian Empire was signed there in 1918.

All who participated in this task win a stay at the suite where Sissi died (I think there's room for all, it is bigger than my apartment...):
https://www.beau-rivage.ch/
My mother happened to stay in the hotel in the 1960s and has fond memories thereof.