History of the villages of the Goms district (Valais)

The 35 documented localities of the Goms district, in the canton of Valais. Each page covers the origin of the name, the main stages of its history and its remains, with sources.

Towns and villages 31

Ammere

No longer lived in all year since 1960, the hamlet of Ammere, in the municipality of Goms, has been a private open-air museum since 1972.

Ausserbinn

Ausserbinn had rejected the merger: attached to Ernen on 1 October 2004 regardless, the village appealed in vain to the Federal Supreme Court.

Bellwald

In 1384 the hamlets of Bellwald united as a farmers' guild. A resort since the 1956 cable car, the village is due to form Unnergoms with Fiesch and Lax on 1 January 2027.

Biel (VS)

Historic centre of the Grafschaft of Biel, a county that until 1799 formed a free court with its own high justice, exercised by an ammann elected by the people.

Binn

Known for its minerals, the Binntal has drawn tourists and mineralogists since the Hotel Ofenhorn opened in Binn in 1883. The valley has been protected since 1964.

Blitzingen

In 1932 Blitzingen burned down, apart from the church and a few houses. The village was rebuilt the very next year in the Heimatstil style.

Bodme

The only settlement on the left bank of the Rotten in the Obergoms, Bodme was a municipality until 1848 and keeps a chapel rebuilt in 1722.

Bodmen

In 1896 a fire split the hamlet of Bodmen, at Bellwald, in two: three houses and five farm buildings in the centre were never rebuilt.

Ernen

Former seat of the high court of the Goms dizain, whose square, with the Tell house and its frescoes of 1578, won the Wakker Prize in 1979.

Fiesch

Since 1678 its people prayed in procession against the advance of the Aletsch Glacier. Since 2009, with the Pope's approval, they pray for its preservation.

Fieschertal

This municipality of hamlets at the foot of the Fiesch glacier only got a road for vehicles in 1965, yet its territory reaches up to the Jungfraujoch.

Fürgangen

First recorded in 1293 and almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1887, the valley-floor hamlet of Fürgangen has had a station since 1915 and a bridge over the Rhône since 2015.

Geschinen

At the end of the 14th century the community of Geschinen bought out all the seigneurial rights held by noble families, above all the Asperlin.

Gletsch

At the foot of the Rhône Glacier, an inn of 1830-1832 became the Seilers' Hotel Glacier du Rhône, where Queen Victoria stayed in 1868.

Gluringen

A Goms village that probably grew from an isolated Alemannic farmstead, where the army set up an anti-aircraft firing range in 1947 and an organic cheese dairy was founded in 2001.

VS · Merger 2017

Goms

From Niederwald to Münster-Geschinen, five municipalities voted to merge in 2015 and have formed the municipality of Goms since 1 January 2017.

Grafschaft

The county (Grafschaft) of Biel, Ritzingen, Selkingen and Gluringen had its own high jurisdiction until 1799. Its name passed to a municipality from 2000 to 2016.

Lax

In 1799, on the Deischberg and in the Lax-Graben, the defenders of Lax were the last to resist the French invasion. The village is due to join Unnergoms on 1 January 2027.

Mühlebach

Its house of the banneret Johann Clausen, dated 1501, is the oldest in the Goms valley dated by an inscription. Another is listed as the birthplace of Cardinal Schiner.

Münster

Former main town of the Goms valley, where the Riedmatten family, which had come from the Visp valley, almost continuously supplied the prince-bishop of Sion.

Niederernen

An independent municipality until 1872, Niederernen keeps the house of 1533, the oldest dated dwelling in the Goms valley.

Niederwald

Former municipality in the Goms valley, a clustered village above the Fiesch terrace and birthplace of the hotelier César Ritz, now in the municipality of Goms (merger of 2017).

Obergesteln

In 1720 an avalanche destroyed the western half of Obergesteln, killing 84 people. After the fire of 1868 this former mule-trail staging post at the foot of the Grimsel was rebuilt in stone.

VS · Merger 2009

Obergoms

Oberwald, Obergesteln and Ulrichen have formed the municipality of Obergoms since 2009, which turned down a wider merger in 2015.

Oberwald

The last village of the Goms valley, below the Rhône Glacier, Oberwald has since 1982 been the portal of the Furka base tunnel, through which cars are carried to Realp.

Reckingen

The artistic centre of the Goms valley in the 18th century, with organ builders, woodcarvers and bell founders, around its Baroque church of 1743-1745.

VS · Lost village

Richelsmatt

A medieval hamlet with its own jurisdiction, Richelsmatt, near Steinhaus, declined after the plague of 1629 and was deserted around 1830.

Ritzingen

In front of the pilgrimage chapel on the Ritzingerfeld, near this Goms village, the Grafschaft of Biel elected its ammann.

Selkingen

A Goms village on the Walibach which, with Biel, formed one third of the Grafschaft, with its own high justice. In 1827 an avalanche killed twelve people here.

Steinhaus

In the autumn of 1361 local people are said to have seized the Bishop of Sion, Guichard Tavel, near Steinhaus and held him for eleven weeks.

Ulrichen

Until 1999 Ulrichen, at the foot of the Nufenen and Gries passes, hosted the highest military airfield in Switzerland, built during the Second World War.

Sites 4

VS · Site