Fiesch

Fiesch

State :	Switzerland Switzerland
Canton :	Canton of Valais Valais (VS)
District :	Gomsw
BFS no. :	6057i1 f3 f4
Postal code :	3984
Coordinates :	653 476 / 139085 coordinates: 46 ° 24 '4 " N , 8 ° 8' 2" O ; CH1903: 653 476 / 13908546,401 8,134 1049
Height :	1049 m above sea level M.
Height range :	974–2889 m above sea level M.
Area :	11.04 km²
Residents:	921 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	83 inhabitants per km²
Website:	www.fiesch.com
Village center
Location of the municipality
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Fiesch ( Valais German [fɪəʃ] ) is a municipal municipality and a civic municipality with a civic council in the Goms district in the Swiss canton of Valais . The place also forms a parish of the deanery Ernen . Fiesch lies at the foot of the Eggishorn (2934 m above sea level) in the upper Rhone Valley (Rottental).

Fiesch Eggishorn Station

Historic aerial photo by Werner Friedli from 1955

history

Fiesch was first mentioned in 1203 in a document from the Abbot of Disentis , in which a witness named Rudolf de Vios is mentioned. From 1438 to the middle of the 19th century the place was mostly written as Viesch . On August 15, 1905, the name was set to the current spelling Fiesch by a federal decree . The place name goes back to the Latin vīcu (s) "village".

With the construction of the road into Goms (1836 Lax – Fiesch, 1852–1863 Fiesch – Fürgangen) and the connection to the Furka-Oberalp-Bahn (today Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn ) in 1915, Fiesch was opened up for tourism . With the establishment of the Fiesch – Eggishorn aerial cableway (1964 to 1966) and the construction of the Fiesch holiday village , tourism finally gained its importance as the most important economic factor in the community.

For more than 400 years the Fiescher prayed for the melting of the glaciers that once threatened the valley. In 2010 the Pope allowed the vow to be changed, and ever since Fiescher has been allowed to pray against the disappearance of the glaciers.

At noon on July 23, 2010, the three rearmost wagons of a Glacier Express derailed in the Fiesch train accident because the engine driver accelerated the train too early in a curve. The accident claimed human lives and 42 people were injured.

population

Population development
year	1809	1850	1900	1950	2000	2010	2012	2014	2016	2018
Residents	425	245	467	517	996	968	945	918	901	921

economy

The main source of income for the village is tourism, especially hiking , biking , paragliding , snowboarding , climbing , skiing , telemark and other sports for which Fiesch is a starting point.

The Fiescheralp , where the middle station of the Fiesch – Eggishorn cable car is located on the Chiebode (“Kühboden”), is an extensive ski area connected to the Bettmeralp and Riederalp and a starting area for paraglider and hang-glider pilots.

In the entire municipality there are 14 hotels with a total of over 600 beds. Together with the holiday apartments and chalets , there are over 4,000 guest beds.

traffic

Furkapass road through the Rhone valley from Brig rsp. Glacier
Fiesch train station of the Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn
Valley station of the Fiesch-Eggishorn cable car
Postbus in the direction of Fieschertal and Ernen

The Fiesch train station was relocated around 350 m to the NNO in 2019 and built with the Fiesch, train station bus stop at the valley station of the new gondola to Fiescheralp as a public transport hub north of the village.

Parish partnership

There is a community partnership with Neufra in the Sigmaringen district (Baden-Württemberg) .

Attractions

The UNESCO - World Heritage Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn is from Fiesch with a cable car on Eggishorn developed.

gallery

Aerial view
railway station
Village church
Fiesch in 1911. The Fiescher glacier is clearly visible.
99 years later viewed from the same perspective.

Personalities

Klemens Wellig (1811–1859), State Councilor (1848–1850)
Marino Bodenmann (1893–1964), politician (KP / PdA)
Daniel Albrecht (* 1983), ski racer

literature

Philipp Kalbermatter: Fiesch. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . 2017 .
Walter Ruppen: Fiesch . In: Society for Swiss Art History (Hrsg.): Kunstdenkmäler der Schweiz (= Vol. 67 ). Untergoms Vol. 2. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1979, ISBN 3-7643-1080-4 , p. 348-396 .

Web links

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

Fiesch on the ETHorama platform
Official website of the municipality of Fiesch

Individual evidence

↑ Permanent and non-permanent resident population by year, canton, district, municipality, population type and gender (permanent resident population). In: bfs. admin.ch . Federal Statistical Office (FSO), August 31, 2019, accessed on December 22, 2019 .
↑ Lexicon of Swiss municipality names . Edited by the Center de Dialectologie at the University of Neuchâtel under the direction of Andres Kristol. Frauenfeld / Lausanne 2005, p. 354.
↑ Valais pray for the glacier
↑ Public transport hub in Fiesch on aletscharena.ch

[1] Permanent and non-permanent resident population by year, canton, district, municipality, population type and gender (permanent resident population). In: bfs. admin.ch . Federal Statistical Office (FSO), August 31, 2019, accessed on December 22, 2019 .

[2] Lexicon of Swiss municipality names . Edited by the Center de Dialectologie at the University of Neuchâtel under the direction of Andres Kristol. Frauenfeld / Lausanne 2005, p. 354.

[3] Valais pray for the glacier

[Hub-4] Public transport hub in Fiesch on aletscharena.ch