Engelberg

Engelberg — "mountain of the angels" — owes its existence to its abbey. Count Conrad of Sellenbüren founded the Benedictine monastery on 1 April 1120, with monks from Muri Abbey and Adelhelm of Muri as its first abbot, and the name Engilperc first appears in 1122. Under Abbot Frowin a scriptorium was founded, and the abbey became a double monastery of monks and nuns. Its abbots held quasi-episcopal authority over the town that grew up around its walls and over the parishes of the area. The library, said to have held over twenty thousand volumes and two hundred manuscripts, was pillaged by the French in 1798.

In 1815, when Nidwalden hesitated to accept the new Federal Treaty, Engelberg quickly declared its support, and after federal troops forced Nidwalden to accept it, the valley was joined to Obwalden. That is why Engelberg is an exclave, entirely surrounded by the cantons of Bern, Nidwalden and Uri.

Tourism followed in the 19th century, led by local families such as the Cattani, Hess and Odermatt, who built hotels. A wider road was built in 1872–74 and the electric railway from Stansstad opened in 1898; the Gerschnialp funicular followed in 1913 and a cable car to Ober Trüebsee in 1927. The railway was extended to Lucerne in 1964, the upper cable car to the Titlis opened in 1967, and the Rotair, the world's first rotating cable car, later carried visitors to Klein Titlis. The Titlis Xpress gondola replaced an older lift in 2015.

The abbey remains the centre of Engelberg's identity. Its library, archives and music collection are a heritage site of national significance, and the library still holds a complete set of Martin Luther's writings — an unexpected treasure for a Catholic monastery. Visitors can watch cheese being made at the dairy in the abbey grounds, and the Talmuseum on Dorfstrasse tells the story of the valley and of Swiss rural life.

Winter sport shapes the village's calendar. The FIS Ski Jumping World Cup comes to the Gross-Titlis-Schanze each December, usually just before the Four Hills Tournament, and the glacier slopes of the Titlis can sometimes be used by advanced skiers from October until May. Summer belongs to hikers and mountain bikers on the trails to Trübsee, the Jochpass and the passes leading into the neighbouring valleys.

The village has also become a meeting place, regularly hosting conferences, and its international visitors are reflected in daily life: English is the third most common first language among residents. Engelberg's mix of monastery, ski resort and high glacier makes it unlike the lake towns of central Switzerland below.

Engelberg had about 4,200 residents at the end of 2020. About a quarter are foreign nationals, and in 2015 around 6 per cent had been born in Germany; German is the mother tongue of most, with Serbo-Croatian and English the next most common. The population grew by about 6 per cent between 2010 and 2016.

By the turn of the millennium the service sector, above all tourism, provided most jobs, with the cable cars, hotels, restaurants and shops at its core. The abbey, with its cheese dairy, is part of village life as well as a sight for visitors.

The year turns on the seasons of the mountains. Winter runs from December to April, the cable cars carry hikers and mountain bikers in summer, and the Titlis glacier draws visitors in every month. Its retreat is a local concern: the glacier on the northern side of the massif has receded dramatically and is expected to disappear in about twenty years. Lucerne is the nearest major urban centre.

Engelberg's best-known local product is the cheese made at the abbey's show dairy, sold in its shop. Two cheese dairies also operate in summer on the Gerschni pasture above the village, along the walking trails towards Trübsee.

The restaurants serve the food of German-speaking Switzerland. Fondue, usually several hard cheeses such as Gruyère and Vacherin melted with white wine and eaten hot with bread, and raclette, melted cheese with potatoes, are associated with mountain culture and winter sports and are most popular in cold weather. Älplermagronen, the Alpine herdsmen's macaroni, combines macaroni, potatoes, onions, small pieces of bacon and melted cheese and is traditionally served with apple sauce rather than vegetables or salad.

Rösti, the fried potato cake that began as a breakfast dish of farmers in the canton of Bern, is eaten across the country, often with cheese, onions and cold meat or eggs. Zopf, a braided bread with a golden crust, is traditionally eaten on Sunday mornings.