Valais · Switzerland
In the destination Zermatt and the Matterhorn.
In the photo: Zermatt center and the St. Mauritius church
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
The city
Village in Upper Valais, at 1.608 m, where German is spoken and combustion cars do not circulate. It has views of the Matterhorn, the Hinterdorf with wooden barns, the Bahnhofstrasse, the Matterhorn Museum – Zermatlantis and the climbers' cemetery. From there depart the Gornergrat train, with the Riffelsee on the way, the cable cars of the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise and Schwarzsee, and the Sunnegga funicular, the start of the 5-Seenweg. There is also the Gornerschlucht and the departure point of the Glacier Express.
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The local experience
The 4,478 m mountain on the border between Switzerland and Italy, with four faces oriented approximately to the cardinal points. First climbed in 1865 from Zermatt, it is visible from the village and from all the valley viewpoints.
Lookout at 3,089 m served by the rack railway Gornergrat Bahn, which departs in front of Zermatt station and climbs in about 33 minutes. From the top you can see the Matterhorn, the Monte Rosa massif and the Gorner Glacier.
Small lake at 2,757 m, a few minutes' walk from the Rotenboden stop on the Gornergrat line. On windless days the water can reflect the Matterhorn.
Cable car station on the Klein Matterhorn, with a panoramic platform at 3,883 m, the Glacier Palace carved 15 m below the glacier surface and views of 38 peaks over 4,000 m in Switzerland, Italy and France.
Lake at 2,583 m at the foot of the Hörnli ridge, with the chapel Maria zum Schnee on its shore. It is a stop on the Matterhorn Express cable car and the starting point of the trail to Hörnlihütte.
Terrace at 2,288 m reached by a funicular that climbs inside the mountain in about 5 minutes. It has the Leisee, where you can swim, a playground, and cable cars that continue to Blauherd and to Rothorn at 3,103 m.
Trail of about 10 km between Blauherd and Sunnegga that passes five mountain lakes: Stellisee, Grindjisee, Grünsee, Moosjisee and Leisee. It takes 2 h 30 min to 3 h and has more descent than ascent.
Underground museum at the Kirchplatz that reconstructs old village houses and tells the history of the Matterhorn, featuring the rope that broke on the first ascent in 1865.
The old core of Zermatt, with more than 30 barns, storehouses and larch wood houses darkened with age, dating from the 16th to 18th centuries, built on stilts with stone discs to keep out rodents.
Zermatt's main street, from the train station to Kirchplatz, with shops, historic hotels and the bronze plaques of the Walk of Climb, which honor the mountaineers of the first ascents of the Matterhorn.
The climbers' cemetery, next to Zermatt's Catholic church, with about 50 graves of mountaineers from several countries who died in the mountains around the village, almost all in the 19th century.
Gorge carved by the Gornera river in green serpentinite rock, crossed by wooden walkways and tunnels, about a 15-minute walk south of Zermatt. The season usually runs from June to mid-October.
The panoramic train takes about 8 hours between Zermatt and St. Moritz, with 291 bridges and 91 tunnels, passing through Brig, Andermatt, the Oberalppass at 2,033 m, Disentis/Mustér, Chur and the Landwasser viaduct. Seat reservation required.
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