Montreux Casino — Site of the Smoke on the Water Fire

On December 4, 1971, a flare fired by an audience member during a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention concert set fire to the Montreux Casino on the shores of Lake Geneva. The fire destroyed the entire building, including the Rolling Stones Mobile Recording Studio that Deep Purple had hired to record their next album. The band watched the blaze from across the lake, and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore later recalled the image of smoke billowing over the water — an observation that became the central image of one of the most recognisable riffs in rock history. 'Smoke on the Water' was recorded in Montreux shortly after, in a borrowed venue, and released in 1972 on Machine Head.

Montreux itself had been a destination for jazz and popular music long before the fire, and would become even more so after it. The Montreux Jazz Festival, founded by Claude Nobs in 1967, had already established the town as a pilgrimage site for music fans, and it continued to attract artists of the highest calibre — including Miles Davis, whose 1970s Montreux recordings are among the best documents of his electric period. Freddie Mercury and Queen also had a deep association with the town, recording extensively at Mountain Studios and spending significant time there in the final years of Mercury's life.

The casino was rebuilt and stands today as a functioning entertainment and conference centre. The lakeside promenade nearby features a statue of Freddie Mercury — now one of the most photographed music heritage monuments in Europe — and a small plaque acknowledges the casino's role in rock history. Montreux is easily reached by train from Geneva and is a genuinely beautiful setting, with the Alps visible across the lake on clear days.