NEVER say never again but the grand Swiss hotel that provided the backdrop to one of 007’s most iconic car chases is now an abandoned shell that may not ever welcome another guest.

The luxurious Belevedere sits on the Furka Pass – which is near the Swiss Italian border and one of the most recognisable mountain roads in the world.

Tourists would flock to the heavenly alpine hotspot from far and wide in its heyday, including Queen Victoria and Pope John XXIII.

But now the building, which sits perfectly on a bend of the road, is now just a defunct beacon of the the golden generation of Swiss tourism.

Its doors were closed to guests in 2015 and it is now boarded up to protect it from looters, with little chance of reopening.

So what went wrong with the hotel that had a show-stealing cameo in Goldfinger as Sean Connery’s James Bond chased the eponympus villain through the mountains in his Aston Martin?

Both the Belvedere and the Furkastrasse  road both belong to the 19th century. The road came first in 1867 and the foundations for the hotel were laid in 1882.

It is said the hotel was from ‘simpler and colder times’ and this is one of the main reasons why the tourism dried up.

The Belevedere was renowned as the place to see one of the final remnants of the Ice Age in all its majestic splendour. Its terrace provided an optimal vantage point to witness the jaw-dropping glacier.

But climate change forced the retreating of the Rhone Glacier, which used to sit a stone’s throw from the building.

It has gone back some 1300m during the last 120 years, leaving behind a track of bare stone. The Swiss have even resorted to covering what remains of the ice with fleece blankets to further protect its erosion.

The pass initially allowed travel between the areas of Uri and Wallis and the hotel offered weary travellers and their horses a place to rest before continuing in an age before the motorcar.

It then became a destination for motoring enthusiasts to visit in their prized vehicles, as well as providing passage for those just trying to traverse the mountains. In later years, after the success of Goldfinger, visitors could even travel down the renamed James Bond Strasse which formed part of the pass.

However such was the danger and intensity of the Furkastrasse that the Belvedere was forced to shut for six months every year due to the hostile winter conditions.

Rosmarie Carlen, who managed the hotel with her husband for ten years until its closure, told the Swiss publication Neue Zürcher Zeitung: “People have a completely wrong idea of what it’s like to run a hotel up here. It’s like a circus – tear it down, build it up, tear it down, build it up.”

Every autumn, the Carlens would move everything vulnerable to the ravages of winter into the house, secure the windows and doors, drain the pipes and power down the electricity.

Come spring, while the mountain pass remained inaccessible, they would fly up with a  helicopter to mend the winter damage and prepare the hotel for the upcoming season.

“It was a great time, but only for the first five years.” Carlen added.

The grand old hotel was finally hit by a wave of change that forced the owners to close indefinitely.

As tourism became cheaper the grand hotels fell out a favour, with travellers preferred more modern hotels.

And while the erosion of the glacier decimated a highlight of the area’s natural beauty, the decisive blow to the once-thriving hotel was the building of the 1982 Furka base tunnel. It meant traffic no longer had the need to go over the pass even during the few short months it was actually open.

Today the future of the hotel, which is among the world’s most stunning abandoned locations,  is more than uncertain. It is clearly a tough sell business-wise, despite being an Instagram goldmine.

But never say never…