A Full Day in Switzerland's Namesake Canton of Schwyz

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The Canton of Schwyz

As the name would imply, the rural Canton of Schwyz on the shores of Vierwaldstättersee is the namesake of die Schweiz (German for Switzerland).

As one of the country’s founding Cantons, Schwyz holds a special place in the Swiss identity and, not coincidentally, plays host to Switzerland’s founding document, the Bundesbrief. Sort of the equivalent to the Declaration of Independence if you are in the United States.

Needless to say, Schwyz was fitting. We ended our journey where Switzerland, began it's (ok, technically that happened on the other side of the lake in Uri about a kilometer from Schwyz but, close enough…).

From Stans in Nidwalden we caught the Engelberg Express train to Lucerne then switched to a fast train to Arth-Goldau in Schwyz, passing through the fields around Küssnacht where Tell supposedly made a name for himself.

At Goldau, we made a stop at the Nature and Animal Park then continued on to the Canton’s capital city, you guessed it, Schwyz.

For those counting, that would be Schwyz, Schwyz, Schweiz. A bit of a mouthful if you ask me, but the city does prove to be quite quintessentially Swiss.

Thanks for joining us!

Posing in front of the Cantonal Crests in the Bundesbrief Museum

The Ballenberg of Birds and Bears

There are a handful of zoos in Switzerland, but the Animal and Nature Park Goldau is the only one (I know of) dedicated exclusively to animals found in Switzerland. Pretty much the animal equivalent of the Ballenberg Open Air Museum outside of Brienz which is dedicated to the rural life and architecture of Switzerland.

Upon our arrival, the weather in Goldau was properly dreary. A damp fog hung over the town and it seemed that the animals were not really having any more of the weather than we were...

With the exception of a cheeky looking European Bison (technically long extinct in Switzerland), some floofy looking egrets, and some overly eager kiddos, the park was more or less asleep.

Egrets in a foggy Animal and Nature Park Goldau

The bear and wolf enclosure was completely abandoned and the free roaming deer seemed a bit disinterested (though this may have had less to do with the fog than the lack of free handouts). Normally you are able to feed the deer and wild sheep, but tree nuts and leaves apparently provide ample enough foraging to warrant suspending food sales during the fall.

Visiting the farmyard animals, who seemed slightly more awake, and petting a few of the sheep who were desperate enough for attention raised our spirits and we continued on to see some of Switzerland’s wild cats and its iconic Steinbock, Switzerland’s archetypal big horned sheep.

The Steinbock enclosure is honestly something to behold. My expectations of one or two animals were shattered by an entire herd with dozens of the horned creatures bashing heads and tip toeing across boulders.

Though I am sure the park’s giant viewing tower offers spectacular views on a clear day, it seemed hardy worth the effort to enter the white out at the top, and we moved straight from the Steinbock on to Switzerland’s avian and aquatic species.

Perhaps the most disconcerting portion of our visit was getting into the cage with Switzerland’s endangered bearded vultures. These massive, grizzled beasts have sharp talons, long curved beaks, and an impressive 2.5 m (8 ft) wingspan. Luckily, as we learned, the birds really only prefer to eat the dead and they are so docile, in fact, that they live harmoniously in the same enclosure as the park’s resident population of adorable snow hares (a breed of alpine rabbit for the uninitiated).

Corinne trying to lure in a wild sheep to pet

The Bearded Vultures

After wandering through the other aviaries and visiting with some of Switzerland’s less well known birds, we spent an extraordinarily long amount of time observing the playful river otters spinning and splashing through the waters of their enclosure before moving on to the park’s quite expansive duck pond.

I can’t really say too much about the pond at Goldau other than that it exists and there seem to be more species of waterfowl than you can shake a stick at. On top of that, the pond appears to be the single least popular attraction by a long shot.

If you are into birds, you are likely to have this corner of the park all to yourself. Likewise, if you are looking for a quiet lunch spot like we were, this is your place.

Determined to see a wolf or bear before leaving Goldau, we made our way back towards the far end of the park one last time. With the temperatures warmed up a bit, the wolves and the bears finally made a showing, and we left the park content that we had seen the best of Switzerland’s fauna.

The Goldau Bergstutz

Goldau boomed at the end of the 19th Century with the construction of new rail connections, and it has prospered from them ever since resulting in a fairly modern town. Walking around the town really isn’t much to write home about. There is a paucity of old architecture, and other than the animal park, nothing particularly exciting popped out at us. That said, Goldau’s modern façade hides a truly sinister past.

On September 2nd, 1806 the residents of Goldau in the Canton of Schwyz at the base of the pre-alps between Zugersee (Lake Zug) and the smaller Lauerzersee (Lake Lauerz) probably heard loud cracks and booms coming from nearby Rossberg mountain. This wasn’t really something new. It had been raining for the past 24 hours and the mountain often made loud noises, especially after lots of rain. For most people it was just an oddity that they chose to ignore.

Up on Rossberg, however, things were anything but normal. The cracks that had grown on the hill over the past 30 years were beginning to open even larger. Trees were starting to fall over and rocks were starting to roll off the mountain with astonishing regularity.

At 5 pm that night, the saturated ground finally gave way sending some 40 million cubic meters of rock and soil tumbling down the mountain in a matter of seconds. For most of the residents of Goldau and nearby Rothen, there was nowhere to run. The boulders were the size of houses and they buried nearly every building and person in town as they continued on down the valley.

When the landslide mass finally hit its terminus at Lauerzersse, the force was large enough to generate a nearly 20-meter (65 ft) wave. The tsunami tore down the lake even further than the debris and washed away even more houses and farms.

By the end of the day, 457 people had lost their lives, 111 houses and 220 barns had been obliterated, and the few residents of Goldau lucky enough to flee from the fringes of the landslide were left in a state of complete shock.

After the 1356 Basel Earthquake, the 1806 Goldau Bergstutz, or landslide, was the single most devastating natural hazard in the history of Switzerland and also the first to be scientifically investigated. Until that point events had simply been attributed to God’s will.

The results of the investigation into Goldau uncovered a particularly landslide prone geology and numerous historical landslides. An even larger, though potentially less destructive, landslide event had even occurred at the same site in the 14th Century giving Goldau, which translates roughly to gravel or rubble, its name.

In the 1920’s the Goldau Animal and Nature Park was founded directly on top of the landslide deposit, about 20 meters above the buried town of Goldau. Massive boulders form a carapace, or covering, on top of the deposit making for challenging construction but interesting topography for the animal enclosures.

For a few moments, when the fog lifted, the park offered a full and unincumbered view of the entire landslide scar up on Rossberg. A harrowing reminder of the events of Goldau, not obscured by adorably fuzzy animals.

Boulders in the Goldau landslide deposit

Looking up at the Rossberg and the Goldau landslide scar

Just inside the entrance to the Animal and Nature Park, there is a small museum dedicated to the story of the Goldau Landslide. Beyond the standard artifacts and interpretive panels, the highlight of the exhibit is an interactive, Imax like landslide simulation with shake plates that simulate vibrations from event.

While I can’t really say that the simulated landslide lines up extraordinarily well with our modern scientific understanding of landslide initiation and runout, the experience nonetheless offers quite a visceral look into the event, its lead up, and some of the terror that must have been felt during the events of 1806.

To the Bundesbrief

From the Animal Park we caught a bus directly to the center of Schwyz. A fire in the late 17th Century saw the town refaced to give it somewhat regal, though quite bureaucratic, looking vibe. Many of the government buildings and museums which huddle around the town center are baroque in style and, at the time of our visit, there was a buzz of activity that you don’t really find in every Swiss town.

Government Offices in Schwyz

Like the rest of Switzerland’s Central Cantons, Schwyz remained Catholic after the Reformation and churches and monasteries abound in the town.

A short walk from the bus stop brought us to our second big stop of the day, the Bundesbrief museum.

The Bundesbrief, considered a first step towards a unified Switzerland, was a mutual defense pact signed by the leaders of the Cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden (today’s Cantons of Obwalden and Nidwalden) (possibly) in 1291 at the Rütli on Vierwaldstättersee. At that time, the three Alpine regions all remained under the thumb of the Holy Roman Empire and its noble families, primarily the Habsburgs. Each had an interest in independence and autonomy but none had the strength alone to combat external threats.

The Bundesbrief

In recent history, the authenticity of the Bundesbrief as a founding document has been called into question. There were many such pacts signed in those years and it remains largely unclear if the document was truly signed in 1291 or just back dated some decades later to demonstrate regional stability during challenging times.

Beyond the Bundesbrief itself, the museum houses many other documents signed between the various Cantons in the 13th and 14th centuries, a large collection of historic flags, and interpretation on the development of Switzerland.

We knew going into the museum that the formation of Switzerland as a modern Country was non-linear, but I do not think Corinne, or I appreciated just how complex the relationships between regions really were.

The museum does a good job trying to connect the dots but, if you don’t know much about Switzerland to begin with, I would say it's quite a hard sell. The historical complexity of the Confederation is extreme and, at times, overshadowed by more recent attempts at unification through a national identity.

Hundreds of formal associations formed modern Switzerland

At its core, Switzerland’s Cantons are, and traditionally have been, aggressively independent but their small size and challenging geographies require mutual support. That need, but perhaps not want, has, at times, left Swiss unity hanging by a thread.

Into the 19th and 20th Centuries, those seeking to retain Switzerland as a unified country turned to historical documents as a symbol of Switzerland’s desire for connection, to stoke a national romanticism. These same efforts upsold the virtues of characters like Wilhelm Tell and Augustus Winkelried, fighting for the little guy, to foster a larger Swiss identity.

Leaving Schwyz after several hours exploring the Bundesbrief Museum gave us a new appreciation for Swiss history.

National romanticism in Switzerland largely died out after the Second World War. Subsequently, the period and its stories have come under fire as just that, romanticism over fact. To me, that just seems like an overly simplistic way of looking at things. Had it not been for the fiction, I am not sure that Switzerland would exist today.

We hope you enjoyed hearing about our visit to Schwyz. You can check out the other posts in this project our One Year: 26 Canton page! Stay tuned for additional articles on our Swiss travels every week!

Until next time, gute Reise, and feel free to leave a comment on one of our social media platforms!

Looking out over the town center of Schwyz