ANDERMATT

GIDDYING HEIGHTS AND WINDING ROADS

E35, 2 (north: exit Göschenen; south: exit Airolo) /16/

The road above the St Gotthard Pass is nice and wide and ever so beautiful! So, weather permitting, we suggest you give the tunnel a miss and veer upwards to the pleasant holiday resort Andermatt!

FROM BRIDLE PATH TO MOTORWAY TUNNEL

The St Gotthard Pass has been offering the traveller a chance to get across the impassable Swiss Alps since time immemorial. In the 13th century there was a bridle path just here, and as time went by this was steadily improved with the addition of bridges and wooden gangways, making it possible, if painstaking, to get through with a horse and cart. But not until the 1820s was a proper pass constructed. This has since been thoroughly modernised. In 1967, for example, 24 hairpin bends beside the dreaded Tremola ravine were replaced by two gently sweeping loops. If you can take your eyes off the dazzlingly beautiful views, you may be able to spot, here and there, narrow little strips of road and tumbledown bridges across dangerously steep precipices, which will get your imagination going. What an ordeal it must have been trying to make your way across here in the olden days! But now it is a different matter. In 1980 the motorway tunnel under St Gotthard was completed and ever since, it has been perfectly possible to travel through with speed and in comfort, summertime as well as wintertime. More or less a century before the opening of the motorway tunnel, the building of a railway tunnel marked an important milestone, making it possible to transport people, and later on cars, right through the mountain.

TWO ATTRACTIVE ALPINE VILLAGES

We exit the motorway at Göschenen, drive up towards the mountain pass and push trough the dark and gloomy Schöllenen gorge. Here the country road and railroad are jostling for room in the narrow space between the high ravine walls, finally ending up “an der Matte”, in the meadow. Andermatt is indeed embedded in a delightful alpine valley of green meadows. A glittering brook is winding its way past the wooden houses of the village, the spire of the little village church and surrounding mountains prettily outlined against the sky. It is a joy to stroll down the main street and along the brook, taking in all the brown, “fish-scale” wooden houses with their slate roofs, so easy to clear of snow. Hospental, the next little village, is very similar to Andermatt and is guarded by a medieval fortress tower.

ACCOMMODATION APLENTY

Both villages were once important junctions between crossroads, and many hotels have been built here to accommodate travelling salesmen, pilgrims and the like. Hospental actually takes its name after a 13th century inn, Hospiz. Today the hotels are mostly frequented by tourists, indulging in walking and rock climbing during the summer season. Wintertime is ski-time of course. If you drive on southwards towards the pass you will find another Hospiz. The very first inn up here opened in the 14th century but since then recurring avalanches have destroyed the constantly re-erected inns. Today there is also a museum here, which teaches us the history of the mountain pass.

ATTRACTIVE EXCURSIONS

It is incredibly beautiful up here with the pass in a barren hollow below, surrounded by high mountaintops. The many lakes make popular destinations of excursions, along with a climb up to Pizzo Centrale, 3,000 metres above sea-level and with a fantastic view over alps and valleys. Beyond the mountain pass the road slopes downhill for a bit and then takes a nosedive into the deep Tremola valley. Breathtaking mountain tops, babbling brooks and ice-shimmering alpine lakes will follow you all the way up through the pass and on to Airolo, 1,000 metres further down in the valley.

Note: The pass is only open during summer: June-Oct/Nov