Bellwald, Ernen and the Suspension Bridge

4 August 2022

The village and municipality of Bellwald (including the hamlets of Ried, Eggen, Bodmen and Fürgangen) is the highest in the region of Goms (canton of Valais) at an altitude of 1560 metres.

The Alemanni immigrated to this region in the 8th and 9th centuries and cultivated the land. They settled on farms, from which the hamlets and villages gradually emerged.

The name Bellwalderberg appears in medieval documents in the 14th century. In 1394 the farmers of Bellwalderberg founded a farmers’ guild. This grew into the municipality of Bellwald in the Zehnden or Zenden of Goms in the sixteenth century.

Agriculture was the only economic activity. However, it was not able to feed the inhabitants. Many emigrated to other cantons or other countries.

The big change started at the end of the 1950s. In 1962, the first hotel opened its doors. The road to the valley, completed in 1971, accelerated the development of tourism, and the village changed from a farming village into a tourist resort.

Fürgangen is best known for the 280-metre-long and 92-metre-high suspension bridge over the Lamma Gorge. This suspension bridge connects the villages and hiking areas of Ernen and Bellwald. The suspension bridge spans the Rhone and the Glacier-Express railway line.

Ernen is situated on the other side of the Lamma Gorge. Unlike Bellwald, this village has been a trading post and residence of the bishop of Sion. The town’s palaces, the Zenden town hall (Zenden-Rathaus), the typical Valais wooden houses, barns and other buildings and its location in the Binntal, the first regional nature park in Valais make it one of the most beautiful villages of Switzerland (Die schönsten Schweizer Dörfer).

Also worth seeing is the nearby hamlet of Mühlebach, with the oldest wooden houses dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries, including the residence of Cardinal Schiner.

The annual classical music festival in Ernen is known far beyond the borders of the canton and the country.

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