Author: Maarten Koning

Glacier Express

The trip of the so-called Glacier Express leads over 291 bridges and through 91 tunnels over the Swiss Alps, from Zermatt and the Matterhorn to St. Moritz. The train finds its way through remote valleys, sheer rock faces, mountain villages, the beautiful Rhine Gorge (die Rheinschlucht), the Grand Canyon of Switzerland, the Albula valley and the impressive Landwasserviaduct (1902). The highest point of this fascinating journey is the Oberalp Pass at 2033 metres.

One of the engineers making it all possible was Richard Coray (1869-1946). He developed a system to overcome the problems of constructing long viaducts.

The maintenance of these viaducts is a significant operation and work of art, similar to the works by Christo Vladimirov Javacheff or Christo (1935).

(Source and further information: www.glacierexpress.ch).

Allschwill

The village of Allschwil was mentioned for the first time in a document in 1033. The name of the town was Almswilre. The town belonged to the Duchy of Alsace. The prince-bishop of Basel became the new Lord in the eleventh century.

Allschwil signed a defensive treaty (Schirmvogtei) with the city of Basel in 1525 but remained part of the prince-bishopric of Basel.

Although the Eidgenossenschaft (except Graubündnen, Graubündner Wirren 1618-1639), was not a battlefield in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), Allschwil was plundered by Swedish troops in 1634.

The villages were in 1792 assigned by revolutionary France to the short-lived Rauracien Republic, from 1793 to the department Mont-Terrible and from 1800-1813 to the department Haut-Rhin.

Allschwil (and the entire Birseck) was assigned to the canton of Basel in 1815. The village is part of the canton Basel-Landschaft since 1833.