Andermatt

The Schoellenen Gorge is a sheer-walled granite gorge carved by the Reuss between Goeschenen and Andermatt. Around 1220-1230, the first wooden bridge was built across it, opening the Gotthard route. The legendary Teufelsbruecke (Devil's Bridge) was first recorded under the name 'Teiffels Brucken' in 1587. According to the legend documented by naturalist Johann Jakob Scheuchzer in 1716, the people of Uri recruited the Devil to build the bridge, promising him the soul of the first being to cross. On the advice of a clever alderman, they drove a goat across instead. The Teufelsstein, a 2,200-tonne granite boulder, sat near Goeschenen for centuries until it was moved 127 metres in 1971 at a cost of 250,000 francs.

In September 1799, Russian Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov led 21,000 troops across the Gotthard Pass to confront French forces under General Massena. On 25 September, the French blew up the Devil's Bridge to halt the Russian advance. Suvorov's officers improvised a repair using wooden beams lashed together with their own neckerchiefs, and the Russians stormed across under heavy fire with terrible losses. That same day, Suvorov used the Suworow House in Andermatt as his headquarters. After a gruelling 300 km march over 21 days, only 15,000 of the original 21,000 soldiers reached safety. In 1898, Russia erected a memorial cross carved into the rock face near the Devil's Bridge.

Construction of the 15 km Gotthard Railway Tunnel began in September 1872 at both portals -- Goeschenen and Airolo -- under Genevan engineer Louis Favre. It was the world's longest tunnel at the time and marked the first large-scale use of dynamite in tunnel construction. Temperatures underground reached 40 degrees Celsius, and a hookworm epidemic ravaged the mostly Italian migrant workers from Piedmont. In 1875, desperate workers went on strike; the Swiss Army was called in, killing 4 strikers and wounding 13. Around 199 workers died during construction. Favre himself died of a heart attack inside the tunnel on 19 July 1879. Breakthrough came on 29 February 1880, and the tunnel opened on 1 January 1882.

Andermatt lies at 1,437 metres above sea level in the Ursern valley, canton of Uri, at the intersection of four major Alpine passes: the Gotthard (2,106 m, south to Ticino), the Oberalp (2,044 m, east to Graubuenden), the Furka (2,429 m, west to Valais), and the Susten (2,224 m, northwest to the Bernese Oberland). This unique position makes Andermatt the natural crossroads of Switzerland. The Ursern Valley Museum preserves the region's heritage in the Suworow House, a patrician building from 1786. On the Oberalp Pass stands the only lighthouse in the Alps, a replica symbolising the nearby source of the Rhine.

The Furka Pass (2,429 m) connects Andermatt via Realp with Gletsch in the Valais. Near the summit lies the Rhone Glacier, the source of the river Rhone, once a major tourist attraction with an ice grotto. The glacier has dramatically retreated due to climate change. The legendary Hotel Belvedere, built in 1882 by Josef Seiler on a hairpin bend directly overlooking the glacier, became one of the most photographed buildings in the Alps; it has been closed since 2015. In 1964, the Furka Pass achieved cinematic fame as a filming location for the James Bond film Goldfinger.

The Glacier Express connects Zermatt and St. Moritz via Andermatt -- a 291 km journey lasting approximately 8 hours, earning it the title of the 'slowest express train in the world.' The first Glacier Express ran in June 1930, operated jointly by three railway companies. The route crosses 291 bridges and passes through 91 tunnels, reaching its highest point at the Oberalp Pass (2,033 m) near Andermatt. The opening of the Furka Base Tunnel on 26 June 1982 made year-round service possible for the first time. Since 2017, the Glacier Express is operated by Glacier Express AG, headquartered in Andermatt.

Since 1885, Andermatt has been a garrison town of the Swiss Federal Army. During World War II, General Henri Guisan expanded the Gotthard fortress into the National Redoubt (Schweizer Reduit): if invaded, the Swiss Army would withdraw into the Alps, making the Alpine passes impregnable and denying the Axis powers vital transit routes. The Gotthard fortress contained hidden caverns with cannons, howitzers, dormitories, kitchens, field hospitals, and ammunition magazines, accommodating 100 to 600 soldiers. The fortress was declassified in 2001. Today, the Sasso San Gottardo museum at the summit occupies the former fortress caverns -- the largest fortress complex open to the public in Switzerland. The museum also displays 1.5 tonnes of giant quartz crystals discovered in the massif.

Bernhard Russi, born in 1948 in Andermatt, won the Olympic downhill skiing gold medal at the 1972 Sapporo Games. He became a legendary Swiss ski racer and later a renowned designer of Olympic and World Cup downhill courses worldwide. He is the local hero of Andermatt, honoured with a permanent exhibition in the Ursern Valley Museum. The Ursern valley, at 1,437 metres, is surrounded entirely by mountains, with four passes converging at Andermatt -- a landscape where a child could grow up knowing every slope and every gust of wind.