Wengen

Wengen is a village in the Bernese Oberland in the canton of Bern, located in central Switzerland at an elevation of 1,274 m (4,180 ft) above sea level. It is part of the Jungfrauregion and has approximately 1,300 year-round residents, which swells to 5,000 during summer and to 10,000 in the winter.

History

Wengen was first mentioned in official documents in 1268. The origin of the name is unknown.

Primarily an alpine farming community, the village began to be visited by tourists in the early 19th century, when Felix Mendelssohn, followed in the 1817 publication of Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley's History of a Six Weeks' Tour and Byron's Manfred, in which the scenery of the area is described. This became the advent of the modern tourism industry for the village.

Guesthouses and hotels began to be built in the mid-19th century, with the opening of the Launerhaus in 1859, with accommodation for 30 guests, and in 1880 the Pension Wengen was available to 100 guests. The building and opening of the Wengernalpbahn in the 1890s made the village more accessible to tourists who previously had to walk up the steep slopes to the alpine village, opening the area for an expansion of tourism and the beginning of the ski industry.

La Val

La Val (Italian: La Valle; German: Wengen) is a comune (municipality) in the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy, located about 45 kilometres (28 mi) northeast of the city of Bolzano.

Geography

As of 30 November 2010, it had a population of 1,307 and an area of 39.0 square kilometres (15.1 sq mi).

History

Coat-of-arms

The emblem consists of a vert branch, placed on bend, with two leaves on argent, it is the emblem of the family Rü. The emblem was adopted in 1969.

Society

Linguistic distribution

According to the 2011 census, 97.66% of the population speak Ladin, 1.53% Italian and 0.81% German as first language.

Demographic evolution

Economy

Tourism

In tourist centers people also speak some English. The religion is Roman Catholic.

The village lives of tourism (hiking, mountain climbing, mountain biking) and agriculture. There is no ski tourism, but in winter shuttle buses transport tourists to the nearby ski resorts such as Alta Badia. There are more guests in winter than in summer.

Whereas in earlier decades the agricultural economy was to a large degree self-sufficient, it has become meanwhile more of a monoculture based on cattle.

Wengen (disambiguation)

Wengen may refer to: