Gimmelwald

Gimmelwald is a small mountain village of the municipality of Lauterbrunnen, in the Bernese Oberland, perched at 1,367 m between Stechelberg, on the valley floor at 867 m, and Mürren, higher up at 1,650 m; it stands at the foot of the Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage site. No road reaches it: access is by the Stechelberg-Mürren-Schilthorn cable car, opened in 1967, or on foot along a narrow 2.7 km path from Stechelberg; a 2.2 km via ferrata, opened in 2008, also links the village to Mürren, 2.3 km away by road.

Gimmelwald is first mentioned in 1346 in a bill of sale; it is an Alemannic linear village founded by Walser settlers — the 1346 document already refers to inhabitants 'from the Lötschental'. The oldest house, built in 1658, still follows the Walser style. Because of its intact and exceptional townscape, the village is listed in the Swiss inventory of heritage sites (ISOS).

Farming — hay cut on small plots to feed small herds — and tourism keep the village going; in winter, farmers often also work for the Schilthorn cable car, maintaining lifts or ski slopes. The population reached its peak in the 1930s. Today Gimmelwald has few inhabitants — 130 in 2003 — and its school, closed in 2010 for lack of pupils, was bought in 2019 by a locally founded cooperative to convert it into housing and slow the departure of residents.

Gimmelwald belongs to the Jungfrau region's tourism network; the village has a small hotel, a former guesthouse now run by British owners, a bed and breakfast, and the Mountain Hostel. It never became a large ski resort: its — only partly justified — designation as an avalanche zone kept it from that fate.

Why this place is remarkable

No road reaches Gimmelwald: the village, an Alemannic linear village founded by Walser settlers and first mentioned in 1346, sits on a shelf between Stechelberg, down in the valley, and Mürren, higher up, at the foot of the Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO site. Its oldest house dates from 1658; cable-car access was only secured in 1967, and since 2019 a residents' cooperative has been buying up buildings rather than seeing them become holiday flats.

History and origin

The village is first mentioned in 1346 in a bill of sale, which already refers to inhabitants 'from the Lötschental'; Gimmelwald is an Alemannic linear village founded by Walser settlers, and its oldest house, built in 1658, still keeps that style. Left without road access, it was only connected to the transport network in 1967, with the opening of the Stechelberg-Mürren-Schilthorn cable car; before that it could only be reached on foot, with difficulty, from Stechelberg or Mürren. Its intact and representative townscape earns it a place in the Swiss inventory of heritage sites.