FRDEITEN
Villages / Valais / Goms district / Bodmen

Bodmen

Canton of Valais · District: Goms · 14 inhabitants (1998, last published figure for the hamlet); the municipality of Bellwald has 364 inhabitants (31.12.2025, provisional FSO figure)
Part of the municipality of Bellwald
Origin of the name Founding Historical timeline Population over time Must-see historical sites Remains Sources and references Nearby villages

Origin of the name Bodmen

The hamlet is called Bodmen or Bodma. It consists of Unner Bodma and Ober Bodma. The name has not been explained.[1][6]

Founding of Bodmen

Bodmen is a hamlet in the municipality of Bellwald, at 1'370 m. Its houses line the edge of a rocky slope, along the path that climbed to Bellwald. With the village of Bellwald and the hamlets of Ried, Eggen and Fürgangen, it makes up the municipality. Most of the buildings date from its heyday, from the 16th to the 18th century, and most of the granaries from the 17th and 18th centuries. The site is rated of national importance in the federal inventory of heritage sites.[1][2][3]

History of Bodmen

1384. The hamlets of the municipality of Bellwald unite under a communal statute (Bauernzunft).[3]

1659-1684. Construction of the chapel of Ober Bodma. Its altar bears the date 1684.[1]

1670. Date carved on the door posts of a stable in Unner Bodma.[2]

1718. Construction of a richly decorated barn on round stones in Unner Bodma.[1]

1786. Construction of the newest house in Ober Bodma.[1]

1872. On the Siegfried map, Bodmen appears as a street village crossed by the path to Bellwald.[1]

1896. A major fire destroys three houses and five farm buildings in the centre. Never rebuilt, they leave the hamlet split in two.[1][2]

1900. The hamlet has 95 inhabitants.[1]

1958. The bakehouse burns down. The remains of the oven survive.[1]

1969. The Bellwalder Berg road now serves the hamlet.[1]

1998. Only 14 inhabitants remain.[1]

Population of Bodmen

Sources and references: [1]

Population of Bodmen
190095
199814

Historic sites in Bodmen

Chapel of Ober Bodma. Chapel of the crowned Mother of God, with a two-tier Baroque altar of 1684, a seven-sided barrel vault in the choir and a coffered wooden ceiling in the nave.[1][4]

Barn of 1718. Barn on round stones in Unner Bodma, which Walter Ruppen described in 1979 as the most important farm building of the lower Goms valley.[1]

Barns and corporation room. A row of barn-stables in Ober Bodma, a granary housing the corporation room and the «uf em Biel» group of buildings in Unner Bodma.[2]

Remains in Bodmen

Bakehouse oven. The bakehouse burned down in 1958. The remains of the oven are still visible.[1]

Sources

  1. Office fédéral de la culture, Inventaire fédéral des sites construits à protéger en Suisse (ISOS), « Bodma (Bellwald) », relevé n° 4825 (2e version)
  2. Stiftung UNESCO-Welterbe Schweizer Alpen Jungfrau-Aletsch, « Bellwald » (texte de Klaus Anderegg), 1re édition, 2011
  3. Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Bellwald » (Philipp Kalbermatter, version du 11.06.2004, traduit de l'allemand)
  4. Bellwald Tourismus, « Churches & chapels »
  5. Office fédéral de la statistique (OFS), STATPOP, chiffres provisoires au 31.12.2025, via citypopulation.de
  6. geo.admin.ch, service de recherche de swisstopo (Bodmen)

Other villages near Bodmen

Missing information, or do you have a source? Suggest a correction or addition. Every submission is checked before it's published.

Suggest a change