Brig

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Brig
Brig coat of arms
State : SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland
Canton : Canton of ValaisCanton of Valais Valais (VS)
District : Brigw
Municipal municipality : Brig-Glisi2 w1
Postal code : 3900
UN / LOCODE : CH BRI (Brig)
Coordinates : 642 260  /  129562 coordinates: 46 ° 18 '58 "  N , 7 ° 59' 14"  O ; CH1903:  642,260  /  129562
Height : 684  m above sea level M.
Brig from the west

Brig from the west
map
Brig (Switzerland)
Brig
w w
Parish before the merger on January 1, 1972

Brig ( Valais German Brig [briːg] , French Brigue , Italian Briga ) is a part of the municipality of Brig-Glis in the Swiss canton of Valais .

geography

Brig lies at an altitude of 681  m above sea level. M. on the south bank of the Rottens , as the Rhône is called there. Located between the Bernese Alps and the Valais Alps , the city is the starting point for the main road 9 and European road 62 over the Simplon Pass towards Italy. A few kilometers to the north is the UNESCO World Heritage Aletsch region with the largest glacier in the Alps. The city is surrounded by the mountains Glishorn ( 2525  m above sea level ), Fülhorn ( 2736  m above sea level ) and Sparrhorn ( 3021  m above sea level ). The western canton capital Sion is 54 km away.

history

Brig Stockalperpalast (Nov. 2013)
Inner courtyard of the Stockalper Castle in the flag decoration, south side
Brig seen from the mouth (March 2020)
Historic aerial photo by Werner Friedli from 1949

The name Brig goes back to the Celtic * briga "hill, hill fortress". The village was first mentioned in a document in 1215 as Briga .

The first prehistoric finds come from the Bronze Age and the Younger Iron Age ( La-Tène ). These are more comprehensive on the Gliserside. Extensive excavations in the Waldmatte in Gamsen show that a settlement was established in the second half of the 7th century BC. Before and in the Roman era, this settlement was enlarged. Later different phases of settlement are proven.

Around 1215, the bishop of Sitten founded the town of Brig. At the beginning of the 16th century, Brig became the main town of Zenden of the same name and the seat of the Zenden court. In 1690 the communities Holzji , Glis and Gamsen merged.

The church in Glis was expanded at the beginning of the 17th century by the important master builder Ulrich Ruffiner . An extension by the Bodmer brothers in the 18th century. During excavations that were carried out in the church in 1984, traces of a rural baptistery from the early days of Christianity in Valais were found.

Center of Brig

The 17th century was shaped by Kaspar Stockalper (1609–1691). He controlled the transport of goods across the Simplon and operated his own ore mines near Brig. His lively construction activity can be seen in the construction of the Stockalper Castle , the Sebastian Chapel and the Jesuit College with the associated church, structures that still shape the cityscape of Brig today. With Stockalper, Brig also became the educational center of the Upper Valais. This promoted the schools of the Jesuits and the Ursulines . The transit axis that Stockalper operated over the Simplon ( Stockalperweg ) was one of the most important alpine crossings in the 17th century and brought Stockalper and the Brigers appropriate reputation and prosperity.

In the years 1801 to 1806 a road was laid over the Simplon Pass by order of Napoleon . The connection was opened in Brig on October 9, 1806. This road route was largely destroyed during the construction of the A9 national road in the 20th century.

In 1878 there was a railway connection to the west, the first Simplon tunnel was opened in 1906, the Lötschberg south ramp of the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon Railway opened in 1913, and in 1926 the railway connection to Goms followed . In 1910, the Peruvian aviation pioneer Jorge Chávez (Geo Chavez) took off from Brig (municipality of Ried-Brig ) to Domodossola to cross the Alps for the first time (he crashed on approach and died shortly afterwards).

In 1972 the three municipalities of Brig, Glis and Brigerbad merged to form today's municipality of Brig-Glis. In December 1998, the Brig-Glis / Naters bypass road was opened as a section of the A9 national road .

On September 24, 1993, a flood disaster occurred in Brig. After persistent heavy rainfall, the level of the Saltina mountain stream had risen sharply. In addition, the creek in the area of ​​the Saltina Bridge, which connects the Brig and Glis districts, blocked its own path with rubble and tree trunks and was looking for a new bed right through Brig. The city was flooded meters high with mud and rubble. Two people were killed. The city center of Brig was redesigned after the cleanup work and upgraded with pedestrian zones. The creek was given stone dams and a bridge was provided with a mechanism that automatically lifts the bridge in the event of high water.

population

Population development
year 1798 1802 1827 1850 1860 1888 1900 1920 1950 1970 1980 1990 2000
Residents 468 412 596 721 1012 1172 2182 3132 3854 5191 9608 10602 11590

railroad

Brig is best known for its Swiss- Italian border station . Up until the opening of the Lötschberg base tunnel, it was the most important transfer station for the Valais in inner-Swiss traffic, but due to the travel times on the two main routes, it was not a fully-fledged hub. The opening of the Lötschberg base tunnel in 2007 diverted part of the transfer traffic to Visp station , which is designed as a full node in the Swiss regular timetable . Brig train station is on two international transit routes through Switzerland: on the Vallorbe - or Geneva - Lausanne - Milan ( Simplon route ) and Basel - Bern - Milan ( Lötschberg line ) route. The city in the Rhone Valley is the starting point of the railway tunnel on the Simplon and indirectly on the Lötschberg tunnel (start of the Lötschberg southern ramp). Brig is also an important stop on the narrow-gauge Matterhorn Gotthard Railway , where the Glacier Express runs towards Zermatt and towards Furka - Oberalp - Disentis / Mustér - St. Moritz .

The railway system consists of the passenger station, two depots (SBB and BLS ), an extensive track system for goods traffic and a loading station for loading cars through the Simplon tunnel. The loading ramp for the car trains between Brig and Iselle is set up in the area of ​​the free loading facility, with direct access from the Naters bypass. The motorail trains are also permitted for normal rail passengers without a vehicle, but they have to accept a signposted 8-minute walk to reach platform 90 ("Brig Autoquai").

The Bahnhofplatz is the starting point for seven postbus lines , including the one over the Simplon Pass .

  • 1906: old station on the far right, new station under construction on the left

  • Station building

  • Brig station (square)

  • Postbus at the
    Simplon Hospice on the Simplon Pass

Attractions

College Church

Brig belongs to the Aletsch tourist region .

  • The old town, where the Stockalper Castle is located, is worth seeing . The castle has three towers towering above brig, which are named Kaspar, Melchior and Balthasar. The palace is the largest private baroque building in Switzerland. The builder was the trader and politician Kaspar Stockalper (1609–1691).
  • The former hospital of the Simplon Tunnel construction company has served as a Reformed church since 1918 .
  • The Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was completed in 1970 and is a typical example of church construction after the Second Vatican Council (pews facing the altar from three sides ).
  • The land wall in Gamsen dates from the 14th century ; a fortification that stands across the valley floor.
  • The Collegiate Church of the Holy Spirit, built between 1673 and 1688, is an example of 17th century Jesuit architecture.
  • The Brigerbad hot water springs have been known since the Middle Ages. In the middle of the 15th century these were buried in a landslide, exposed again in 1471 and made accessible for swimming.
  • A monument on Sebastianplatz commemorates the aviation pioneer Jorge Chávez Dartnell . The monument to " King X, the unknown ruler " has stood on the square in front of the old works yard since 2006

Twin cities

(see Brig-Glis # twin cities )

sons and daughters of the town

literature

Web links

Commons : Brig  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lexicon of Swiss Community Names , ed. from the Center de Dialectologie at the University of Neuchâtel under the direction of Andres Kristol, Frauenfeld / Lausanne 2005, p. 187.
  2. ↑ Brig station on ETHorama
  3. ↑ Changeover times given in the timetable
  4. ↑ Carmela Kuonen Ackermann: The college church of the Holy Spirit in Brig. (Swiss Art Guide, No. 569). Edited by the Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1995, ISBN 978-3-85782-569-9 .