In 1929, the Prahran Telegraph published some letters from St Kilda Councillor, G.H. Robinson, who was touring abroad. George Hardy Robinson, of Tiuna Grove Elwood, was the head master at Elwood State School; he was elected to represent the South ward of the council in 1926 and he was the Mayor in 1929/30, having been elected to the position while he was still overseas; he was installed as Mayor after his return in October. The loyal Cr Robinson was reported as saying that he had visited many places while on tour abroad, and he could say that he had seen no place that appealed to him more than St. Kilda (1)
Cr Robinson and his wife, Elizabeth, sailed at the end of April 1929 and he wrote about their visit to many locations in Italy, including Lido, in Venice where the bathing facilities are not equal to those of St. Kilda (says Cr. Robinson), but St. Kilda can learn much from Rhyl in North Wales. (2)
From Italy, the Robinsons went to Switzerland -
We motored from Lucerne to Engleberg. Attached to the Benedictine Monastery, founded in 1120, is a beautifully furnished church. The monks received us very kindly, and showed us through the building. In the graveyard of the chapel, I saw the family vault of Dr. Carl Catani, who is most likely a relative of the late Carlo Catani, of St. Kilda. (3)
This is the grave at Engleberg of Familie Dr Cattani, which Cr Robinson saw. The inscription on the left reads - Dr Eugen Cattani 14 Juni 1838 - 24 Dez 1910. Frau - Marie Cattani Amrhein 6 Nov 1848 - 21 Feb 1913. On the right - Dr Carl Cattani 1 Mai 1805 - 29 Nov 1869. Frau - Anna Cattani-Kuster 27 Feb 1820 - 9 Oct 1910.
The grave of Familie Dr Cattani at Engelberg, Switzerland,
seen by Cr Robinson on his trip abroad
Photographer: Robert Savery from Find a Grave
Engelberg was a noted tourist destination; one source notes that -
Engelberg’s development as a tourist destination began in the 1840s when physician Dr Carl Cattani established Engelberg as a health resort and built the village’s first hydrotherapy hotel, the Engel. Cattani believed that the power of nature could cure diseases like tuberculosis and chronic catarrh if patients “took the waters”, were given hydrotherapy treatments, and got plenty of fresh air. (4)
There is other information about the Cattani family in Engelberg in a short history of the Kempinski Palace Hotel in Engelberg -
The village of Engelberg has been characterised by tourism for over 100 years: In the middle of the 19th century, the village, located in the middle of the Central Swiss Alps, experienced a tremendous boom and first became known as a health resort for drinking and bathing cures.
The hotel history of today's Kempinski Palace Engelberg began in the spring of 1890, when the hotelier and politician of the time Eduard Cattani (1841 – 1908) bought a piece of land from the Benedictine monastery in Engelberg and had a spa built on it. The connection of the mountain village to the railway network in 1898 – at that time the longest electric railway line in Switzerland – was followed one year later by the opening of the spa by the successful Engelberg hotelier Eduard Cattani. He had already realised the first luxury hotel in the valley in 1865 with the Hotel Titlis.
Since the spa could not be heated in times of winter tourism, which developed from 1903 onwards, Cattani commissioned his brother, the internationally renowned hotel architect Arnold Cattani (1846 – 1921), to construct the Grand Hotel Winterhaus – later better known as Hotel Europäischer Hof, which opened in 1905. Three years earlier, in 1902, the present Kursaal was built as a banqueting hall in the space between the two hotels. The Kuranstalt and the Grand Hotel Winterhaus were known as the most luxurious guest houses in Engelberg, with an excellent reputation far beyond the borders of Switzerland. The buildings, arranged in a semicircle with the Hotel Titlis, the Grand Hotel Winterhaus, the Kursaal and the Kuranstalt, were soon the talk of the town and known as "Little Versailles".
In December 1939, the brothers Eduard, Alfred and Arnold Cattani sold the "Grand Hotel Winterhaus with concert hall and bar annexe together with surrounding grounds" to the Obwaldner Kantonalbank (5)
We can assume that Cr Carl and Dr Eugen are related to Eduard, Alfred and Arnold Cattani, but are they connected to Carlo? It is easy to see why Cr Robinson made that assumption and the difference in spelling of the surname is neither here nor there as it is not unknown for branches of the same family to spell their names differently.
I am with Cr Robinson in this matter as there are connections or coincidences between the Swiss Cattani family and Carlo's family, apart from the fact that were all men of vision and enterprise. Carl Cattani and his son, Eugen, were both doctors, as was Carlo's brother, Giulio (who I have written about here). As an Architect, Arnold Cattani, combined the professions of Carlo - the engineer and his brother Ugo - the noted artist - as buildings need to be structurally sound and hopefully aesthetically pleasing. Carlo enthusiastically promoted tourism in Victoria, as one obituary noted - To his energy and enthusiasm the development of many of the popular mountain tourist resorts are due, especially Mount Buffalo (6) whilst the Swiss Cattani family promoted tourism in the Alps.
Hotel Cattani, Engelberg
Detroit Free Press, February 16, 1910 p.6, from newspapers.com
Hotel Cattani, Engelberg
London Evening Standard, June 1 1908, p. 16, from newspapers.com
The only other reference to the Cattani family and Engelberg I could find in the Australian newspapers was in the Kalgoorlie Miner in 1906, when they published an account of a visit there by an un-named author -
It was on a day of brilliant, broken sunshine that I came over the Arlberg and down at night to Zurich. Here the moon was misty, and the lake spread a dampness in the air. Next morning dawned grey and cloudy. At Lucerne it was thawing nastily, and snow seemed to be not far off. However, snow or no snow, I meant to get up to Engleberg and see what sport and entertainment that happy valley, always so full of visitors in the summer, could afford in winter.
This is the first year it has been open as a winter place. The enterprising Brothers Catani [sic], who owned several hotels up here already, built another one specially far cold-weather guests. At Christmas time there were well over a hundred English visitors, who made up a merry party, and a good number have stayed on. (7)
Is Carlo related to Dr Carl Cattani and his family? One day, I may have genealogical proof either way, but until then, my answer is in the affirmative.
Footnotes(1)
Sun News-Pictorial, April 17, 1926, see
here;
Prahran Telegraph, May 31, 1929, see
here;
Prahran Telegraph, August 30, 1929, see
here;
Prahran Telegraph, October 25, 1929, see
here; Obituary -
The Age, July 13, 1939, see
here;
Sun News-Pictorial July 14, 1939, see
here.
(2)
Prahran Telegraph, May 31, 1929, see
here;
Prahran Telegraph, August 16, 1929, see
here (3)
Prahran Telegraph, August 16, 1929, see
here(6)
Prahran Chronicle, July 27, 1918, see
here(7)
Kalgoorlie Miner, March 16, 1906, see
here.
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