Säumerfest in Meiringen, Switzerland

We booked an apartment stay in Meiringen, Switzerland with a company called Untours. Gondolas run from here to mountain adventures and its train and bus connections make it easy to take daytrips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meiringen is home to the Sherlock Holmes Museum and is where we found local bakery treats and legendary creatures. We were also fortunate to stumble upon a special event known as Säumerfest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One afternoon, as part of an event called Säumerfest 2016, a group in traditional attire arrived with donkeys and mules laden with wooden cheese boxes to parade through town. They were recreating the times when cheese and other goods were transported by way of the passes through Meiringen.

We first spotted them by the 15th century St. Michael’s Church and the Hasli-Museum, where the exhibits include a description of mule tracking.

St. Michael’s Church was built over ruins of the medieval one that is now accessible by a stairway.

Meiringen is at the foot of several alpine passes and was an early medieval market town along the trade routes. The restored tower of the Restiturm, a 13th century castle that regulated trade, still stands to the east, near the gondola. We learned in the Hasli Museum that cheese, salt and crystals were traded for textiles, wine, rice, and spices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Säumerfest 2016 followed the Sbrinz-Route, named for the hard cheese of central Switzerland.

Muleteers, Meiringen, Switzerland

This scenic trail from Lucerne to Domodossola is now popular with hikers.