Riffelalp
Origin of the name Riffelalp
The name Riffelalp appears again a little lower down in that of Untere Riffelalp. Its meaning remains to be explained.[4]
Founding of Riffelalp
The Riffelalp plateau lies at about 2'200 m above Zermatt, facing the Matterhorn. The place owes its rise to the hotel trade: in 1884 the pioneer Alexander Seiler built a grand hotel here. The first tourists rode up on horseback. The hotel reportedly soon became a favourite summer retreat of Europe's cultural and aristocratic elite.[1][5]
History of Riffelalp
1856. On 1 September Alexander Seiler reportedly acquired a first plot of land on the Riffelalp.[5]
1878-1884. Construction of the Riffelalp Grand Hotel, with 150 beds.[5]
1884. Opening of Alexander Seiler's grand hotel on 10 July. In the same year an Anglican chapel is inaugurated on the Riffelalp.[1][5][7]
1886-1887. Alexander Seiler and his wife Catharine Seiler-Cathrein have the Catholic chapel of the Sacred Heart (Herz Jesu) built, inaugurated on 3 July 1887.[6]
1890. The hotel has 200 beds, then 280 after two annexes open.[5]
1898. The Zermatt-Gornergrat rack railway opens. Its tracks pass some 600 m from the hotel, and trains replace the horses. Seiler would have liked a station by the hotel, but the terrain and the route did not allow it. In the summer he obtains the concession for a tramway.[1][2][3]
1899. In July an electric tramway, described as the shortest and highest in the world, links the Gornergrat line with the hotel.[1][2][5]
1961. In February, during works to open the hotel in winter as well, a fire destroys the grand hotel. Only the two annexes survive. The tramway, in service for about sixty years, stops and its cars are stored in the garden of the Seiler family in Zermatt.[1][2][5]
1986-1988. The two annexes become a 40-bed hotel and holiday apartments. From 1988 the Riffelalp welcomes guests again.[5]
1986-1999. The old tram cars are displayed in the garden of the Mont Cervin Palace hotel in Zermatt.[2]
1998. Start of a large construction and renovation programme that leads to the present resort.[5]
2000. Christian Seiler reopens a luxury hotel on the same site, the Riffelalp Resort.[1]
2001. In June the tramway runs again, with a replica built by the engineer Hans Tribolet of the Zermatt railway.[1][5]
Historic sites in Riffelalp
Riffelalp tram. The 468 m line, with an 80 cm gauge, ends at 2'222 m. The original cars, fed by an overhead line with power from the Gornergrat railway, were replaced by two battery railcars built in the company's workshops in Zermatt. The tram runs during the hotel's summer season. For these railcars the Brig-Visp-Zermatt railway laid an 80 cm test track in Visp.[2]
Sacred Heart chapel. A little apart from the hotel, this whitewashed neo-Gothic chapel has a bell tower, pointed windows and a small canopy over the entrance. Beside the door, plaques in French honour Alexander and Catharine Seiler. On the altar a statue of the Sacred Heart stands between the Virgin and, probably, St Rita. It still belongs to the Seiler family, and Mass is said on Saturdays in summer.[6]
Anglican chapel. It is now a cultural centre and concert venue, used among others by the Zermatt Festival & Academy.[7]
Sources
- SWI swissinfo.ch, Dale Bechtel, « Rebirth of travel's golden age in Zermatt » (25.06.2001)
- Gornergrat Bahn (gornergrat.ch), « Riffelalp: the highest tramway in Europe »
- Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (version allemande du Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse), « Zermatt » (Bernard Truffer, version du 13.02.2014)
- geo.admin.ch, service de recherche de swisstopo (Riffelalp)
- Riffelalp Resort (riffelalp.com), « The resort and its history »
- Zermatt Tourismus (zermatt.swiss), « Chapelle de Riffelalp "Herz Jesu" »
- Gornergrat Bahn (gornergrat.ch), « Englische Kapelle Zermatt/Riffelalp »
Other villages near Riffelalp
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