Taubenloch Gorge

The Taubenlochschlucht ( French Gorges du Taubenloch ) is one of the Schüss shaped Klus between Frinvillier in the Bernese Jura and Bözingen . The Schüss has already cut through the Rondchâtel Klus above Frinvillier . Before it reaches the gorge, the water of the Orvine flows from Orvin into the Schüss, to the east a dry side valley opens up to Vauffelin .

Taubenloch Gorge

origin of the name

The name Taubenloch is first mentioned in a document from 1532 and has various explanations:

From pigeons that used to nest there.
In the past one wrote Daubenloch instead of Taubenloch , whereby a Daube ( see also Tobel ) meant an abyss or ditch.

Legend has it that a young man from the area once loved a girl who was so beautiful and lovely that everyone called her La Colombe (dove). The two wanted to get married. But she was persecuted by the tyrant of Rondchâtel, who had also fallen in love with her. In order not to fall into his hands, she jumped down into the ravine and perished there. The gorge Taubenloch or Gorges de la petite colombe was named in her honor .

Transport-related importance

The Taubenloch Gorge was already important as a traffic route in Roman times , but could not be directly accessed with the resources available at the time. Therefore, the road coming from Petinesca led along the western shoulder of today's Bözingenberg, the Vorberg, to Frinvillier and from there through the gorge of Rondchâtel further north and then via the Col de Pierre Pertuis to Augusta Raurica . Remnants of this path can still be seen in Frinvillier near Martinsklafter . A watchtower on the ridge to the west of the village underlined the importance of this passage as a trade route.

This route was maintained until the beginning of the 19th century, when it was no longer sufficient for the rapidly changing volume of traffic. In 1859 the new road from Biel to Sonceboz was opened after nine years of construction. The heart of the section in the Taubenloch Gorge was the “Tubelochbrügg”, a single-arched stone bridge that attracted a lot of attention at the time.

In 1874, the Biel – Sonceboz-Sombeval –Tavannes section of the Jura Railway from Biel to Basel was put into operation, which continues through the Taubenloch Gorge to this day mainly in two tunnels.

In 1969 the construction of the new road began, which was designed as part of the national road network. This four-lane road (A16) had to be partially separated for reasons of space. About halfway down the Taubenloch Gorge, the north-facing tracks lead along the eastern slope of the gorge to Péry - La Heutte , while the south- facing tracks run west of the Schüss. Because of the difficult terrain, many engineering structures such as bridges, supporting pillars and tunnels were necessary for this route.

Waterfall in the lower part of the gorge

Tourist importance

In 1889, initiated by the SAC , a footpath was built through the Taubenloch Gorge. The tourist potential was recognized even then. The Taubenlochgesellschaft was founded in the same year for the maintenance and care of this hiking trail. Since then, with occasional interruptions for renovation, the path has been lively used up to the present day. What is unique is that the hiking trail in Bözingen leads directly out of the city into a wild and romantic natural landscape. The distance to Frinvillier is about two kilometers.

Falling rocks

After a major rockfall on August 1st, 2009, the popular hiking trail through the gorge was closed for a long time. In 2003 the gorge had to remain closed for two years due to the risk of falling rocks. In 1998 one child was killed in falling rocks and others were injured. The hiking trail has been open again since Easter 2010.

Use of the water

As early as 1634, the Prince-Bishop of Basel issued a permit to operate a mill at the lower end of the gorge in Bözingen, whose power was used to pull wire. This small industry later became the United Wire Works Biel (VDB), a company that was very important in Biel until the end of the 20th century. In 1882 the mill was replaced by a dynamo that supplied the electricity for lighting the factory rooms. This system was the first power station in the Biel region and the first permanent direct current transmission in Switzerland, which from 1884 led from the small power station in the Taubenloch Gorge to the wire drawing shop in Bözingen . The power plant was taken over by the city of Biel in 1992 and is now part of Bielersee Kraftwerke AG (BIK) . It produces 14.6 gigawatt hours annually.

In the course of time, two more hydropower plants were built to produce electricity. All three power plants are still in operation today.

The Taubenloch small hydropower plant was established in 1896 when the municipality of Bözingen wanted to use an electric pumping station to pump spring water from the gorge into a reservoir at a higher level in order to solve its drinking water problem. The project failed due to resistance from Biel and the wire works. Instead, Brown, Boveri & Cie. (BBC) created the Bözingen electricity company. It was rebuilt in 1940 and was one of the first power plants in Switzerland to be fully automated. Today it belongs to Energie Service Biel / Bienne (ESB) (formerly Elektrizitätswerke Biel) and, after a complete renovation in 2006, supplies 2 gigawatt hours of electricity a year.

The uppermost plant in the gorge was the Evilard / Leubringen pumping station to solve the drinking water shortage in the village and to electrically operate the Biel-Evilard cable car built in 1898 . At the end of the 19th century, two hydropower concessions were merged in Frinvillier and in the upper section of the gorge. The existing industrial canal in Frinvillier was extended into the gorge and the pumping station to pump drinking water from the Merlin Spring II located between Rondchâtel and Frinvillier. Today the plant is operated exclusively to generate electricity.

In Bözingen, the building of a former oil mill, which was powered by shot water, still stands today.

Hydropower plant Bözingen BIK with pressure line (top left)
Small hydropower station Taubenloch ESB and road bridge from 1859
Taubenloch ESB small hydropower plant, vertical Kaplan turbine (background) and old turbine
Evilard pumping station

literature

Fernand Schwab: 300 years of wire industry. Festschrift for the three hundredth anniversary of the Bözingen plant of the Vereinigte Drahtwerke AG Biel 1634-1934 . Solothurn, 1934.