Andermatt

Coordinates: 46°37′N 8°35′E / 46.617°N 8.583°E / 46.617; 8.583
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Andermatt
Andermatt looking east towards the Oberalp Pass with cable car (to Gemsstock) bottom station in front and Rossbodenstock (2836m) in the back (8 Feb 2003)
Andermatt looking east towards the Oberalp Pass with cable car (to Gemsstock) bottom station in front and Rossbodenstock (2836m) in the back (8 Feb 2003)
Coat of arms of Andermatt
Location of Andermatt
Map
Mayor
Präsidentin
Yvonne Baumann
 • Parliamentnone (Offene Dorfgemeinde)
Area
 • Total62.26 km2 (24.04 sq mi)
Elevation
(Church)
1,437 m (4,715 ft)
Highest elevation2,999 m (9,839 ft)
Lowest elevation
(Schöllenen)
1,289 m (4,229 ft)
Population
 (31 December 2018)[2]
 • Total1,390
 • Density22/km2 (58/sq mi)
DemonymGerman: Andermatter(in)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (Central European Time)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (Central European Summer Time)
Postal code(s)
6490
SFOS number1202
LocalitiesAndermatt, Gurschen, Unteralp, Nätschen, Oberalp, Alp Rossboden
Surrounded byAirolo (TI), Göschenen, Gurtnellen, Hospental, Tujetsch (GR)
Websitewww.gemeinde-andermatt.ch
SFSO statistics

Andermatt (Romansh: Ursera) is a mountain village and municipality in the canton of Uri in Switzerland. At an elevation of 1,437 meters (4,715 ft) above sea level, Andermatt is located at the center of the Saint-Gotthard Massif and the historical center cross of north-south and east-west traverses of Switzerland. It is some 28 km (17 mi) south of Altdorf, the capital of Uri.

Geography

Parish Church St. Peter and Paul in Andermatt
Aerial view by Walter Mittelholzer (1931)

Andermatt is in the

St Gotthard Pass (6,909 ft; 2,106 m.) to the south and the Furka Pass (7,992 ft; 2,436 m.) to the west.[3]

Andermatt has an area, as of 2006[update], of 62.2 km2 (24.0 sq mi). Of this area, 40.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 5.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (52%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).[4] In the 1993/97 land survey, 0.4% of the total land area was heavily forested, while 5.1% is covered in small trees and shrubbery. Of the agricultural land, 4.3% is used for orchards or vine crops and 36.5% is used for alpine pastures. Of the settled areas, 0.5% is covered with buildings, and 1.1% is transportation infrastructure. Of the unproductive areas, 0.5% is unproductive standing water (ponds or lakes), 1.0% is unproductive flowing water (rivers), 30.9% is too rocky for vegetation, and 19.7% is other unproductive land.[5]

Transport

Andermatt serves as a crossroads between southern Switzerland and the north as well as between eastern Switzerland (i.e.

Devil's Bridge.[3]

Since the opening of the Schöllenen route, around 1200, Andermatt has been on the Gotthard route.

The town is served by a

Gotthard railway line
.

History

Andermatt village centre
Old St Gotthard post on the pass

Archaeological finds dating back to 4000 BC indicate that the Urseren was already populated in the

Walsers
, who established settlements in the area, where the current town of Andermatt is situated.

The Devil's Bridge by J.M.W. Turner (ca. 1803/04)

The

Swiss Confederation
, the ecclesiastical rights of the Disentis monastery were revoked in favour of civil legislation.

In the Flight of the Earls, Irish earls lost a fortune in gold at the Devil's Bridge crossing ravine on St Patrick's Day 1608. It has never been recovered and is known as the Lost Treasure of the St Gotthard Pass.[citation needed]

Nearby Schöllenen Gorge is the site of a memorial commemorating the 1799

campaign of the Russian general Alexander Suvorov
.

Between 1818–1831 the nearby St Gotthard Pass was made accessible to

stagecoaches. As the last resort before the pass, Andermatt flourished economically and became a popular spa town
.

The opening, in 1881, of the

St Gotthard railway tunnel, however, reversed its fortunes as the tunnel runs immediately beneath the town, connecting the Central Swiss town Göschenen with Airolo in Ticino
. Some Andermattians who worked on the tunnel were killed during its construction. A strike by the tunnel workers, furthermore, was put down by military force, killing a further four workers.

Since 1885, Andermatt has been a garrison town of the Swiss Federal Army. Here the infrastructure for the High Command of the Swiss Federal Army in the event of war was built. Today it is the location of a training centre of the Swiss army.[7]

Plans to build a series of reservoirs in the valley of Andermatt, the Urseren, encountered fierce resistance by the locals in 1946 and were abandoned four years later.[8] A huge reservoir was built instead in the next valley, the Göschenertal.[9]

Several avalanches, in particular in the winter of 1951 and 1975 have caused havoc in some residential areas of Andermatt, killing the inhabitants of the houses affected.[citation needed]

Hotel Furkablick on the Furka Pass, east side

By the 1930s the town's income from tourism had seriously declined, and many of the Ursental's hotels were abandoned or changed use. The Grand Hotel Bellevue, which was built by the aristocratic Müller family from neighbouring Hospental (who at one time or another owned many other hotels nearby including the Hotel Furkablick and Hotel Furka Passhöhe - as well as hotels in

St Moritz and Gstaad
, Andermatt's fortunes again revived and the town has seen considerable expansion and is currently undergoing much speculative building.

Demographics

Andermatt has a population (as of 31 December 2020) of 1,527.[10] As of 2007, 10.0% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -8.8%. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (95.2%), with Portuguese being second most common (1.0%) and Italian being third (0.9%).[4] As of 2007 the gender distribution of the population was 50.8% male and 49.2% female.[11]

In Andermatt about 75.2% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule).[4]

Andermatt has an unemployment rate of 0.9%. As of 2005, there were 51 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 22 businesses involved in this sector. 90 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 13 businesses in this sector. 599 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 78 businesses in this sector.[4]

Historical population[6]
Year Population
1799 605
1850 677
1900 818
1950 1,231
1970 1,589
2000 1,282
2008 1,242
2010 1,304
2014 1,408

Climate

Between 1961 and 1990 Andermatt had an average of 147.3 days of rain per year and on average received 1,422 mm (56.0 in) of precipitation. The wettest month was April, with an average of 135 mm (5.3 in) of precipitation and an average of 14 days with precipitation. The month with the most days of precipitation was May, with an average of 14.1, but with only 128 mm (5.0 in) of precipitation. The driest month of the year was February with an average of 106 mm (4.2 in) of precipitation over 14 days.

Köppen Climate Classification system, Andermatt has a Marine West Coast climate, abbreviated "Cfb" on climate maps.[13]

Climate data for Andermatt (1991–2020)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Daily mean °C (°F) −4.8
(23.4)
−4.3
(24.3)
−1.0
(30.2)
3.0
(37.4)
7.5
(45.5)
11.0
(51.8)
12.7
(54.9)
12.6
(54.7)
8.9
(48.0)
5.2
(41.4)
−0.1
(31.8)
−3.9
(25.0)
3.9
(39.0)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) −10.3
(13.5)
−10.3
(13.5)
−6.4
(20.5)
−2.4
(27.7)
1.8
(35.2)
4.8
(40.6)
6.7
(44.1)
6.5
(43.7)
3.2
(37.8)
0.0
(32.0)
−4.8
(23.4)
−8.9
(16.0)
−1.7
(28.9)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 99
(3.9)
91
(3.6)
103
(4.1)
108
(4.3)
134
(5.3)
131
(5.2)
112
(4.4)
134
(5.3)
130
(5.1)
125
(4.9)
142
(5.6)
112
(4.4)
1,423
(56.0)
Average snowfall cm (inches) 106
(42)
111
(44)
89
(35)
65
(26)
18
(7.1)
1
(0.4)
0
(0)
0
(0)
2
(0.8)
25
(9.8)
82
(32)
111
(44)
610
(240)
Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) 11.2 10.3 11.5 11.5 12.9 13.2 12.3 12.7 10.4 10.2 11.8 11.4 139.4
Average snowy days (≥ 1.0 cm) 11.2 11.4 9.9 6.2 2.0 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.4 2.6 7.7 12.0 63.6
Average
relative humidity
(%)
75 75 74 72 73 75 75 77 77 75 77 77 75
Source: MeteoSwiss[14]

Skiing

Andermatt has two main

Oberalp, which are currently only accessible by train, however they are a part of the whole ski area
.

Andermatt's mountains are popular for their off-piste, deep snow characteristics.

Entertainment

Andermatt's concert hall became the first purpose-built arts venue in an Alpine village, with Constantinos Carydis conducting the Berlin Philharmonic on the venue's opening night.[15] The London-based architect Christina Seilern designed the space and Samih Sawiris funded it.[15]

Media

The gas station Aurora, near the Gemsstock departure, appears in the James Bond movie Goldfinger. Bond fills up his Aston Martin there after a car chase on the Furka pass.

In November 2012 Andermatt appeared on the British

electric bicycles, scooters, and several mobile phone photo editing applications, on the hills of Nätschen.[16]

Notable people

Gallery

References

  1. ^ a b "Arealstatistik Standard - Gemeinden nach 4 Hauptbereichen". Federal Statistical Office. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  2. ^ Error: Unable to display the reference properly. See the documentation for details.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-3-302-00004-6. Retrieved 2017-07-05 – via map.geo.admin.ch. {{cite map}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help
    )
  4. ^ a b c d Swiss Federal Statistical Office Archived 2016-01-05 at the Wayback Machine accessed 08-Sep-2009
  5. ^ Canton Uri - Ground use statistics Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 8 September 2009
  6. ^ a b Andermatt in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
  7. ^ "Komp Zen Geb D A". Archived from the original on 2007-01-28.
  8. ^ «Krawallnacht» rettet Andermatt vor dem Untergang |Neue Zürcher Zeitung, February 15, 2016
  9. ^ Fritz Ringwald, Das Kraftwerk Göschenen : Geographische Studie über die Nutzbarmachung der Reuss, Geographica Helvetica 18 no. 4, 1963, pp. 305-314
  10. ^ "Ständige und nichtständige Wohnbevölkerung nach institutionellen Gliederungen, Geburtsort und Staatsangehörigkeit". bfs.admin.ch (in German). Swiss Federal Statistical Office - STAT-TAB. 31 December 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  11. ^ Uri Population statistics Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 8 September 2009
  12. ^ "Temperature and Precipitation Average Values-Table, 1961-1990" (in German, French, and Italian). Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology - MeteoSwiss. Archived from the original on 27 June 2009. Retrieved 8 May 2009..
  13. ^ Climate Summary for Andermatt
  14. ^ "Climate Normals Andermatt (Reference period 1991−2020)" (PDF). Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology, MeteoSwiss. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  15. ^ a b Tilden, Imogen (2019-06-19). "Andermatt concert hall brings high culture to Alpine ski village". The Guardian. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  16. ^ "The Gadget Show - Switzerland". 8 January 2013

External links