Jungfraujoch

The Jungfraujoch occupies the lowest point on the ridge linking the Mönch to the Jungfrau, in the Bernese Alps, at 3,463 metres, on the boundary between the cantons of Bern and Valais. The pass lies across the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen, on the Bernese side, and Fieschertal, on the Valais side, where almost all the buildings of the site stand. It falls within the Jungfrau-Aletsch natural site, a UNESCO World Heritage property since 2001, and looks out over the Aletsch Glacier stretching away to the south.

The line that reaches it was proposed in 1893 by the Zurich industrialist Adolf Guyer-Zeller; construction began in 1896 and finished in 1912, after boring 7.1 kilometres of tunnel under the Eiger and the Mönch, on a route totalling 9.3 kilometres from Kleine Scheidegg. The terminus, at 3,454 metres, remains the highest railway station in Europe. The site is often called the 'Top of Europe' in tourist guides.

On the surface, the Sphinx observatory occupies a rocky spur at 3,571 metres, on the Valais side, above the glacier; a high-altitude research station was inaugurated there in 1931 and is still run by the Foundation for the High Altitude Research Stations Jungfraujoch and Gornergrat. On 21 October 1972 a fire destroyed the site's hotel and restaurant without casualties; the building that replaced them, 'Top of Europe' by architect Ernst E. Anderegg, opened in 1987. Since December 2020 the Eiger Express cable car has linked Grindelwald directly to Eigergletscher station, on the Jungfraujoch line.

The pass was first crossed in July 1862 by a party led by the British mountaineer Leslie Stephen, with valley guides — thirty years before the idea of a railway line was even proposed. Between 2017 and 2019 the site drew more than a million visitors a year, making it one of the most visited tourist destinations in Switzerland.

Why this place is remarkable

The Jungfraujoch owes its fame to a contrast between two timescales: a station bored through granite in sixteen years, between 1896 and 1912, to reach 3,454 metres — the highest in Europe — on a pass mountaineers were already crossing on foot in 1862. The line opens onto the Aletsch Glacier, at the heart of a site inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 2001, while at the Sphinx observatory, on its spur at 3,571 metres, a research station operates on the same spot that more than a million visitors pass through every year.

History and origin

The route, completed in 1912 from a project launched in 1893 by the industrialist Adolf Guyer-Zeller, bores 7.1 kilometres of tunnel under the Eiger and the Mönch over a total course of 9.3 kilometres from Kleine Scheidegg. The ridge itself carries a watershed: to the north, the Lütschine flows into the Aare and then the Rhine; to the south, the Massa, fed by the melting Aletsch Glacier, flows into the Rhône. The hotel-restaurant opened with the line burned down entirely on 21 October 1972; the current building, 'Top of Europe' by architect Ernst E. Anderegg, dates from 1987.