In the early 1960s, Elizabeth purchased Chalet Ariel, a then unfinished chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland, where she and her family would gather for Christmas and other special occasions. The exterior was described as “a picture-post-card two-storey timbered house of rustic sturdiness and vast overhanging eaves, outside steps and snug windows.” It was built for a wealthy Texas oil tycoon and his ballerina wife—but work on the property ground to a halt when the two divorced during construction.

At the time, Gstaad, with its majestic Alpine views and the village’s quaint, fairytale quality, was quickly becoming a favourite hotspot for the rich and famous. When Elizabeth and her family settled in Gstaad, Henry Ford II, the Aga Khan, and the former King Umberto of Italy already owned homes there. Later, Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood, Peter Sellers and Lynne Frederick, Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews, and Roger Moore would also call Gstaad home.

For Elizabeth and her family, Chalet Ariel was a refuge from the outside world. The house was photographed by her personal photographer, Gianni Bozzacchi, for House & Garden in 1970, when she lived there with Richard Burton and her children. This article, and the accompanying photographs and descriptions, provide the most intimate glimpse of the home as it looked during this period. Inside, the cozy drawing, or sitting, room, with its oak beams, featured “deep and luxurious sofas, upholstered in ivy-green velvet, partnered by yellow lampshades surmounting oriental vases and warmed by rare oriental carpets”. Richard’s art books filled the bookshelves and, for a time, some of the awards the Burtons collected for their acting, including Elizabeth’s Oscars, lined a shelf in this room. (Three Academy Awards were on display in this room in 1970. As Elizabeth didn’t receive her third Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, until 1993, the third statuette was likely Mike Todd’s for Around the World in 80 Days.)

The dining room, where many family meals were shared, was decorated with antiques dating from the eighteenth century, among them a Dutch chandelier. Elizabeth’s bedroom was warmed by a fireplace. The furniture in this room, including the canopy above the wood-framed bed, and even the doors, were carved by local Swiss artisans in the time-honoured fashion.

Some of the furniture from Chalet Ariel would later be incorporated into the rooms of Elizabeth’s Bel-Air home on Nimes Road. She would own Chalet Ariel for nearly forty years, until she sold the property in 2000.