Adelboden
Encyclopedia
Adelboden is a municipality
Municipalities of Switzerland
Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...

 in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district
Frutigen-Niedersimmental (administrative district)
Frutigen-Niedersimmental District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Oberland administrative region. It contains 13 municipalities with an area of and a population of 38,871....

 in the Bernese Oberland
Bernese Oberland
The Bernese Oberland is the higher part of the canton of Bern, Switzerland, in the southern end of the canton: The area around Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, and the valleys of the Bernese Alps .The flag of the Bernese Oberland consists of a black eagle in a gold field The Bernese Oberland (Bernese...

 in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

Geography

Adelboden lies in the west of the Berner Oberland, at the end of the valley of the Engstlige river, which flows in Frutigen into the Kander river.

Adelboden is a traditional Swiss mountain village on a terrace looking south to the Engstligen waterfalls. Also part of the village are the inhabited valleys of Gilbach, Stigelschwand, Boden, Hirzboden, and Ausserschwand. Church and main street are at 1350 m (4,429.1 ft), the highest point of the area is the Grossstrubel
Wildstrubel
The Wildstrubel is a mountain in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland on the border between the Canton of Berne and the Canton of Valais.The mountain has three summits, all of similar height:...

 with 3242 m (10,636.5 ft), the lowest point is at 1045 m (3,428.5 ft) in the Engstligen valley.

The vegetation
Vegetation
Vegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader...

 is alpine
Alpine tundra
Alpine tundra is a natural region that does not contain trees because it is at high altitude. Alpine tundra is distinguished from arctic tundra, because alpine soils are generally better drained than arctic soils...

 and sub-alpine, partially wooded, the slopes, the plateaus, and terraces usually alp meadows.

The most salient mountains are Lohner
Lohner (mountain)
The Lohner, also Gross Lohner , is a limestone mountain range in the Swiss Bernese Oberland, which features several peaks, from east to west:* Chlyne Lohner , * Nünihorn, * Hinder Lohner ,...

 (3049 m (10,003.3 ft)), Steghorn
Steghorn
The Steghorn is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland, between Engstligenalp and Gemmi Pass.The easiest ascent can be made from the "Lämmeren" hut in Canton Valais via the Steghorn glacier or the Leiterli rocks...

 (3146 m (10,321.5 ft)), Wildstrubel
Wildstrubel
The Wildstrubel is a mountain in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland on the border between the Canton of Berne and the Canton of Valais.The mountain has three summits, all of similar height:...

 (3243 m (10,639.8 ft)), Fitzer (2458 m (8,064.3 ft)), Tschenten (2025 m (6,643.7 ft)) (mountain railway) and Gsür
Gsür
The Gsür is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, located between the valleys of the Simme and Kander, in the canton of Bern....

 (2708 m (8,884.5 ft)).

Adelboden has an area, , of 88.19 km² (34.1 sq mi). Of this area, 36.52 km² (14.1 sq mi) or 41.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while16.07 km² (6.2 sq mi) or 18.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.18 km² (0.841702705731726 sq mi) or 2.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 1.53 km² (0.590736302646579 sq mi) or 1.7% is either rivers or lakes and 31.93 km² (12.3 sq mi) or 36.2% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 0.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 1.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.8%.. 14.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.0% is used for growing crops and 8.5% is pastures and 32.9% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 9.6% is unproductive vegatation, 25.6% is too rocky for vegatation, and 1.1% of the land is covered by glaciers.

History

Adelboden is first mentioned in 1409 as in valle Adelboden. In 1453 it was mentioned as Adelboden alias silva.

The alps Engstligenalp
Engstligenalp
The Engstligenalp is the biggest plateau of the western Swiss Alps. It lies south of Adelboden on 1900 - 2000 m above sea level. Since 1996 it belongs to the Swiss culture landscapes of national importance....

 and Silleren belonging to Adelboden are mentioned for the first time in the 13th century. The inhabitants of Engstligental are called forest people. In the 15th century Adelboden got its own church and there were over 50 house fathers vouching for the salary of the minister.

In the 16th century Adelboden joined the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

, the Catholic minister fled over the Hahnenmoospass to the Catholic Canton of Fribourg
Canton of Fribourg
The Canton of Fribourg is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the west of the country. The capital of the canton is Fribourg. The name Fribourg is French, whereas is the German name for both the canton and the town.-History:...

.

Up to the 19th century, the only way to Frutigen was high on the south slope of the Engstligen valley and often impassable in winter. In the late 19th century a road along the Engstligen river was built joining Adelboden to the rest of the world.

In the 1870s the first boarding house was opened by one of the local teachers. It developed into a hotel, which is still in the possession of the same family (hotel Hari im Schlegeli). Around the turn of the century tourism led to a big increase in the population.

Adelboden was the destination of the first packaged winter sport
Winter sport
A winter sport is a sport which is played on snow or ice. Most such sports are variations of skiing, ice skating and sledding. Traditionally such sports were only played in cold areas during winter, but artificial snow and ice allow more flexibility...

s holidays (vacations
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

), organised by Sir Henry Lunn in 1903.

Into the 1930s the aerial ropeway to the Engstligenalp was built with further ropeways following. The Silleren area was up into the 1980s accessible by buses.

Main sights and cultural events

  • Engstligen falls
    Engstligen falls
    The Engstligen falls near Adelboden in the Bernese Oberland are the second highest waterfalls in Switzerland. They are listed in the Swiss inventory of landscapes of national significance....

    : the Engstligen river falls 600 m (2000 ft) over rocks into the depth and forms one of the most impressive waterfalls in the Bernese Oberland. Very impressive is the "Alpaufzug" when 350 cows are driven upward on the narrow seam path through the cliff to the summer pasture on the Engstligenalp in early summer.
  • Engstligenalp
    Engstligenalp
    The Engstligenalp is the biggest plateau of the western Swiss Alps. It lies south of Adelboden on 1900 - 2000 m above sea level. Since 1996 it belongs to the Swiss culture landscapes of national importance....

    : plateau
    Plateau
    In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...

     at 2000 m (6562 ft.) elevation
    Elevation
    The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....

  • The town's church, with early-20th centuries glassworks by Augusto Giacometti
    Augusto Giacometti
    Augusto Giacometti was a Swiss painter from Stampa, Graubünden, cousin of Giovanni Giacometti who was the father of Alberto, Diego and Bruno Giacometti....

    .
  • Our Chalet - a international meeting place for girl guides and scouts.


Cultural events include:
  • World Cup Men's alpine ski
    Alpine skiing
    Alpine skiing is the sport of sliding down snow-covered hills on skis with fixed-heel bindings. Alpine skiing can be contrasted with skiing using free-heel bindings: Ski mountaineering and nordic skiing – such as cross-country; ski jumping; and Telemark. In competitive alpine skiing races four...

     races (January)
    • the men's giant slalom
      Giant Slalom skiing
      Giant slalom is an alpine skiing discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles spaced at a greater distance to each other than in slalom but less than in super G....

       course is one of the most challenging on the World Cup circuit.
  • Vogellisi-Festival (Live music, July)
  • Vogellisi Lauf (Mountain running race in July)
  • Kammermusic-festival (Chamber music, July)
  • Langlauf night - every December 30 - Cross Country races on the main street of town

Demographics

Adelboden has a population (as of ) of . , the population included 5.5% which were foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -1.2%.

In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...

 which received 38.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the local small left-wing parties (28.8%), the CSP
Christian Social Party (Switzerland)
The Christian Social Party is a political party in Switzerland. The CSP is more social democratic than the CVP. With the moderate Christian left as its background, the CSP commits itself to social democratic and environmentalist political solutions...

 (13.4%) and the FDP
Free Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Free Democratic Party was a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It was one of the major parties in Switzerland until its merger with the smaller classical liberal Liberal Party, to form FDP.The Liberals on 1 January 2009....

 (7.3%).

The age distribution of the population is: children and teenagers (0–19 years old) 26.4% of the population; adults (20–64 years old) 57.2%; and seniors (over 64 years old) 16.4%. In Adelboden about 69.4% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule
Fachhochschule
A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...

).

Historically the population was:
year population
1764 1,051
1850 1,513
1900 1,564
1910 2,163
1990 3,347

Languages

The language is Adelbodnertütsch, which belongs to the Bernese Oberland dialects with some loans from Valais
Valais
The Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...

 dialects and belongs to the Highest Alemannic
Highest Alemannic German
Highest Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic German and is often considered to be part of the German language, even though mutual intelligibility with Standard German and other non-Alemannic German dialects is very limited....

 language group.

Most of the population speaks German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

  (95.0%), with Serbo-Croat the second most common ( 1.0%),
and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

 third ( 0.9%).

Government

Legislation is adopted by the biannual general assembly
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...

. Executive is the local council with nine members, all of whom are honorary.

Economics

Adelboden has a mixture of agriculture, local industry (wood building companies, mineral water source) and tourism. People work in tourism, (approx. 490 persons), other services (approx. 500 persons), construction industry (approx. 310 persons), automobile industry (approx. 30 persons), mineral water source (approx. 45 persons) and agriculture (fulltime approx. 45 persons), taxidermy (fulltime approx. 16 persons)

Adelboden has an unemployment rate of 1.8%. , there were 366 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 143 businesses involved in this sector. 601 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 57 businesses in this sector. 1098 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 153 businesses in this sector.

Tourism and sport

Tourism in Adelboden is especially suitable for families.
Adelboden has 24 hotels with 1291 beds, 3800 vacation homes with 15,200 beds, 28 group accommodations with 1830 beds, 3 camp sites and 40 restaurants.

In the summer there are 200 km (124 mi) of hiking trails, from sedate walks to alpine climbing-routes. Numerous mountain railways lead up to the mountains. Additional activities are: numerous mountain bike routes; and model aircraft construction on Hahnenmoospass with a workshop, and wind and landing opportunities.

In the winter there are ski runs of all degrees of difficulty, including the world-cup giant slalom run on the Kuonisbärgli, and cross-country ski trails. There are 40 km (25 mi) of winter hiking trails. For snowboarders there are freeride and freestyle runs.

The Adelboden slalom
Slalom skiing
Slalom is an alpine skiing discipline, involving skiing between poles spaced much closer together than in Giant Slalom, Super-G or Downhill, thereby causing quicker and shorter turns.- Origins :...

 and giant slalom are considered classic events of the FIS Alpine World Cup.

Weather

Transportation

Adelboden has only one incoming road connecting from Frutigen which connects via Spiez
Spiez
Spiez is a city in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.-Geography:Spiez has an area of . Of this area, 38.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 29.1% is forested...

 to the N6 and Bern. There is no transit traffic.

Frutigen is a train station of the Lötschberg line, connecting to Bern and Brig
Brig, Switzerland
Brig, officially Brig-Glis is a municipality in the district of Brig in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.The current municipality was formed in 1972 through the merger of Brig , Brigerbad and Glis.-History:...

; it is connected to Adelboden by regular post bus services.

There is an old mountain pass route via Engstligenalp and Chindbettipass to the Gemmi Pass
Gemmi Pass
Gemmi Pass is a high mountain pass across the Bernese Alps connecting Leukerbad in the canton of Valais in Switzerland with Kandersteg in the canton of Bern....

 and into the Valais which is still used by hikers, and another connection via Hahnenmoospass into the valley of Lenk
Lenk
Lenk may refer to:Places:* Lenk im Simmental, a municipality in the district of Obersimmental in the canton of Bern in SwitzerlandPeople:* Arthur Lenk, an Israeli diplomat* Maria Lenk, a Brazilian swimmer...

 which was formerly used as a trade route to the lake of Geneva.

Schools

In Adelboden there is a primary school, middle-school and a secondary school; the nearest special secondary school is in Frutigen.

Schools in Adelboden: There are four primary schools officially in the Adelboden school district, three middle schools (Realschule), and a secondary school (Sekundarschule). The nearest special secondary school is 20 minutes down the mountain in Frutigen and the nearest high schools (Gymnasiums) are in Thun and Interlaken.

Notable people

A number of notable persons in cross country skiing, mountaineering
Mountaineering
Mountaineering or mountain climbing is the sport, hobby or profession of hiking, skiing, and climbing mountains. While mountaineering began as attempts to reach the highest point of unclimbed mountains it has branched into specialisations that address different aspects of the mountain and consists...

 and alpine skiing were born in Adelboden:
  • Rolf Zurbrügg
    Rolf Zurbrügg
    Rolf Zurbrügg is a Swiss ski mountaineer and national ski-mountaineering coach. He is also cross-country skiing and a trained mountain guide....

    , Swiss national ski mountain trainer
  • Frieda Dänzer
    Frieda Dänzer
    Frieda Dänzer is a Swiss former Alpine skier, successful in the second half of the 1950s. At the 1956 Winter Olympics, she won silver in downhill. At Bad Gastein in 1958, she became world champion in Alpine Combined and won the silver medal in Downhill and bronze in Giant Slalom.-References:...

    , former Alpine skier and 1958 world champion
  • Annerösli Zryd
    Annerösli Zryd
    Annerösli Zryd is a Swiss alpine skier and world champion.Zryd won a gold medal at the 1970 World Championships in Val Gardena, winning the Downhill event.-References:...

    , 1970 world champion in Alpine skiing
  • Italian/British writer Rafael Sabatini
    Rafael Sabatini
    Rafael Sabatini was an Italian/British writer of novels of romance and adventure.-Life:Rafael Sabatini was born in Iesi, Italy, to an English mother and Italian father...

    died in Abelboden and is buried there.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK