History of the villages of the Visp district (Valais)
The 23 documented localities of the Visp 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 18
Baltschieder
In 2000 a flood forced the people of Baltschieder to leave their village for several weeks. The municipality is due to merge with Visp on 1 January 2027.
VSGrächen
Born here to a farming family in 1499 or a little later, Thomas Platter became a printer in Basel. His village, one of the driest in Valais, draws glacier water through four channels.
VSLalden
A former farming village grouped around the Owlig house of 1520, which became an industrial site when the Lonza and Teranol petrochemical plants were built in 1962-1966.
VSMerjen
In Merjen, a district of the municipality of Stalden (VS), a chapel is mentioned as early as 1215. The bridge by the engineer Alexandre Sarrasin, opened in 1932, spans the Mattervispa gorge here.
VSNeubrück
In 1599 the Zenden of Visp had a stone arch bridge built over the Vispa at Neubrück, in the municipality of Stalden (VS). The place, then called Niederrusen, joined Stalden in 1817.
VSOberstalden and Unterstalden
At Oberstalden, a hamlet of the municipality of Visperterminen, people settled on a terrace around 1500 BC. The settlement lasted, moving down the slope, until the 11th century.
VSRanda
Village in the Mattertal on the road to Zermatt, struck repeatedly by ice falls from the Bies glacier and by the rockslide of 1991.
VSRiffelalp
On the Riffelalp plateau, in the municipality of Zermatt, Alexander Seiler built a grand hotel in 1884. From 1899 a 468 m electric tramway linked it to the Gornergrat railway.
VSSaas-Almagell
On 30 August 1965 part of the Allalin glacier collapsed onto the huts of the Mattmark dam building site, killing 88 workers, most of them Italian.
VSSaas-Balen
Its round Church of the Assumption, built in 1812 by Jean-Joseph Andenmatten, is among the most original baroque buildings in Switzerland.
VSSaas-Fee
The road arrived in 1951, but the village lanes have stayed car-free. All around, at the foot of the Dom, thirteen peaks rise above 4'000 metres.
VSSaas-Grund
For nearly five centuries St. Bartholomew's church in Saas-Grund was the only parish church of the whole Saas valley.
VSSt. Niklaus
The Grand Hotel built by the municipality in 1867 became a factory in 1947. In 2005 the plant, part of the Bosch group, was the world's leading maker of saw blades.
VSTäsch
Since 1972 the Mattertal road has ended at Täsch: visitors leave their cars here and continue to Zermatt by train.
VSVisp
A Celtic statue of the god Sucellus came out of its ground. A market town on the Monte Moro route, Visp became the town of Lonza in 1907.
VSVisperterminen
Above Visp, the Heida vineyard, the highest in Europe. In the 1850s a quarter of the inhabitants reportedly emigrated to Argentina and founded San Jerónimo Norte there.
VSZermatt
People were already sheltering under a rock on the Hermetje alp around 9000 BC. In 1865 the first ascent of the Matterhorn made Zermatt a mountaineering centre.
VSZmutt
In Zmutt, a hamlet of the municipality of Zermatt at 1'930 m, the timber of one house was felled in 1212. Five late medieval houses still stand.
Sites 5
Barrage de Mattmark
At 5.15 pm on 30 August 1965, two million cubic metres of ice and debris from the Allalin glacier buried the Mattmark dam construction site in the municipality of Saas-Almagell, killing 88 workers.
VS · SiteMatterhorn
On 14 July 1865 a party setting out from Zermatt reached the summit of the Matterhorn (4'478 m), in the municipality of Zermatt, for the first time. Four men died on the descent.
VS · SiteMariä Heimsuchung Chapel
In the forest above Visperterminen, in the municipality of the same name, the pilgrimage chapel of the Visitation, founded in 1652, holds an organ of 1619. The earthquake of 1855 brought down its vault.
VS · SiteTheodulpass
Around 1600 an armed man carrying 181 coins died on the Theodul glacier above Zermatt. His remains came to light again between 1984 and 1989.
VS · SiteÉglise circulaire de Saas-Balen
Two cylinders of different sizes, each under a shallow conical roof: the church of the Assumption in Saas-Balen, built in 1809-1812, is one of the most original Baroque buildings in Switzerland.