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Schöllenen Gorge
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Schöllenen Gorge
46°38′51″N 8°35′24″E / 46.64750°N 8.59000°E
Schöllenen Gorge (German: Schöllenen) is a gorge formed by the upper Reuss in the Swiss canton of Uri between the villages of Andermatt to the south and Göschenen to the north. It provides access to the Alpine valley Urseren and consequently to the St Gotthard Pass to the south, the Furka Pass to the west, and the Oberalp Pass to the east.
Enclosed by sheer granite walls, its road and railway require several spectacular bridges and tunnels, of which the most famous is a stone bridge known as the Teufelsbrücke ("Devil's Bridge").
The lower Urseren marks the boundary of the Aar massif with the autochthonous sediment of the Gotthard nappe ("Urseren-Zone"). In Altkirch quarry, on the southern end of the gorge, Triassic and Jurassic sediments are exposed. In the Schöllenen Gorge (at the Urnerloch tunnel), the Reuss enters the crystalline Aar massif (Aar granite), the gorge itself being an exemplary late alpine fluvial water gap.
The name of the gorge is from Rumantsch *scalinae 'stairs, steps', recorded in German as Schellenden in 1420. It formed the upper limit of Alemannic settlement in the Alps prior to the 12th century, and the border between the bishoprics of Constance and Raetia Curensis.
The gorge appears to have been passable by a difficult footpath by the mid-12th century. This path was forced to avoid the southern part of the gorge, taking a steep ascent from Brüggliwaldboden, climbing above 1,800 m before descending to Hospental via Bäzberg. The eponymous scalinae presumably referred to steps hewn into the rock to facilitate the ascent.
The gorge was first opened up as a bridle path with the construction of a wooden bridge in c. 1230 (before 1234). This was of great strategic importance because it opened the Gotthard Pass, with historical consequences both regionally and to the Italian politics of the Holy Roman Empire.
The original bridle path across Schöllenen was realised by means of a wooden ledge attached to the rock wall, known as Twärrenbrücke, and a wooden bridge across the gorge, recorded as stiebende Brugge 'spray bridge' in 1306. The Twärrenbrücke (from twer 'across, athwart') rested on beams laid across the gorge. A tradition imagining it as supported by hanging chains developed only after its collapse in the 18th century. The technology associated with the construction of the Twärrenbrücke is attributed to the Walser, who are known to have begun settlement in Urseren still in the 12th century. 16th-century historiography attributes the construction of the bridge to one Heini (Heinrich), blacksmith in Göschenen. Robert Schedler published a historical novel surrounding the construction of the Schöllenen bridle path, Der Schmied von Göschenen, in 1919.
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Schöllenen Gorge
46°38′51″N 8°35′24″E / 46.64750°N 8.59000°E
Schöllenen Gorge (German: Schöllenen) is a gorge formed by the upper Reuss in the Swiss canton of Uri between the villages of Andermatt to the south and Göschenen to the north. It provides access to the Alpine valley Urseren and consequently to the St Gotthard Pass to the south, the Furka Pass to the west, and the Oberalp Pass to the east.
Enclosed by sheer granite walls, its road and railway require several spectacular bridges and tunnels, of which the most famous is a stone bridge known as the Teufelsbrücke ("Devil's Bridge").
The lower Urseren marks the boundary of the Aar massif with the autochthonous sediment of the Gotthard nappe ("Urseren-Zone"). In Altkirch quarry, on the southern end of the gorge, Triassic and Jurassic sediments are exposed. In the Schöllenen Gorge (at the Urnerloch tunnel), the Reuss enters the crystalline Aar massif (Aar granite), the gorge itself being an exemplary late alpine fluvial water gap.
The name of the gorge is from Rumantsch *scalinae 'stairs, steps', recorded in German as Schellenden in 1420. It formed the upper limit of Alemannic settlement in the Alps prior to the 12th century, and the border between the bishoprics of Constance and Raetia Curensis.
The gorge appears to have been passable by a difficult footpath by the mid-12th century. This path was forced to avoid the southern part of the gorge, taking a steep ascent from Brüggliwaldboden, climbing above 1,800 m before descending to Hospental via Bäzberg. The eponymous scalinae presumably referred to steps hewn into the rock to facilitate the ascent.
The gorge was first opened up as a bridle path with the construction of a wooden bridge in c. 1230 (before 1234). This was of great strategic importance because it opened the Gotthard Pass, with historical consequences both regionally and to the Italian politics of the Holy Roman Empire.
The original bridle path across Schöllenen was realised by means of a wooden ledge attached to the rock wall, known as Twärrenbrücke, and a wooden bridge across the gorge, recorded as stiebende Brugge 'spray bridge' in 1306. The Twärrenbrücke (from twer 'across, athwart') rested on beams laid across the gorge. A tradition imagining it as supported by hanging chains developed only after its collapse in the 18th century. The technology associated with the construction of the Twärrenbrücke is attributed to the Walser, who are known to have begun settlement in Urseren still in the 12th century. 16th-century historiography attributes the construction of the bridge to one Heini (Heinrich), blacksmith in Göschenen. Robert Schedler published a historical novel surrounding the construction of the Schöllenen bridle path, Der Schmied von Göschenen, in 1919.
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