This page brings together articles on events, local decisions, infrastructure, culture and Alpine life across Gstaad, Saanenland and neighbouring communities.
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August 28, 2026
Note: Züglete is a local word for moving livestock from one place to another. In this case, it is an Alpabzug, the descent from the high Alpine pasture toward the valley as the summer grazing season comes to an end.
Gstaad Züglete - Rapid View
Opening: 9:30 a.m. with the Trechlerclub (bell ringing), followed by the first cattle descents
Route: Gstaad Promenade and Güterstrasse
Festival pause: From 11:30 a.m.
Afternoon: Cattle descents continue after the midday pause
Official end: Approximately 4:30 p.m.
Expected cattle groups: Four to five, subject to late changes based on weather, pasture conditions and farmers’ decisions
Around the event: Local products, food, music, agricultural demonstrations and family activities
Admission: No price or ticket information is published
Safety: Stay outside the cattle route, follow steward instructions and keep dogs away from the animals
Information: Current 2026 schedule
The Gstaad Züglete is scheduled for Saturday, 5 September 2026, in central Gstaad. The opening is expected at about 9:30 a.m., after which farming families are due to bring their decorated herds through the Promenade at intervals. The provisional outline includes a pause in cattle arrivals from 11:30 a.m., with the official daytime programme expected to finish at approximately 4:30 p.m. This does not necessarily mean that all market, restaurant or evening activity will end at that time. The detailed running order is expected to be confirmed shortly before the event.
In an interview published on 25 August, the organising committee said that four or five herd descents were then expected. Two farming families had already withdrawn because forage shortages required them to leave the Alps earlier. Organisers nevertheless expected the event to proceed, although final participation could be confirmed only shortly beforehand. Weather, animal welfare and the number of available herds could still affect the programme.
The 2026 plan also extends part of the event into Güterstrasse. The herds are expected to pass through the Promenade as usual, with some returning by Güterstrasse, where additional market stalls, music and food service are planned. Güterstrasse is due to be closed to general traffic during the event, apart from taxis. Further details appear in the 25 August report from Anzeiger von Saanen.
Read the full article about the agricultural tradition, its contemporary festival form and the broader UNESCO context of transhumance in the July 2026 notes. General event information is also available from Made in Bern.
See More: "The Gstaad Züglete Brings the Alpine Season Through the Promenade" from July (on this site).
Visitors should consult the latest event information before travelling, as herd participation and timings may change at short notice.
August 27, 2026
The familiar shorthand is that Gstaad allows only wooden chalets. It is an attractive explanation because the result appears so consistent: pitched roofs, broad eaves, timber surfaces and buildings that generally remain subordinate to the surrounding slopes. [Example: Video in downtown Gstaad].
The currently published general regulation is more precise and more interesting. Gstaad is a village within the municipality of Saanen, so the principal local text is the Saanen building regulation. It strongly directs architectural form, but it does not define a “chalet,” require every structure to be wooden or impose one identical design throughout Gstaad. (...). Article continues at gstaad.events/gstaad-chalet-building-rules/.
August 26, 2026
Summary: Late-medieval wall paintings disappeared beneath whitewash after the Bernese Reformation. Their return almost four centuries later made the church a record of both the religious world that created them and the movement that removed them from view.
Place: Zweisimmen, Bernese Oberland
Dating: First documented in 1228; an earlier core or predecessor probably dates from the 12th or 13th century; wall-painting campaigns around 1480 and around 1500.
Purpose: Formerly a Catholic church dedicated to the Virgin Mary; now an active Reformed church and concert venue
Location: Kirchgasse 4c/d, 3770 Zweisimmen |
See inside the church: https://maps.app.goo.gl/5oVJvHhdnsEiM6KM8 (Tip: rotate the image to the other wall and top back of the hall).
The Reformed Church of Zweisimmen stands on a terrace above the village. Its present identity is Protestant, but its walls preserve the visual world of the Catholic church that preceded it. The building therefore records two religious histories: the richly painted Marian church of the late Middle Ages and the Reformation that removed those images from view after 1528.
The church is first securely documented in a 1228 register of the Diocese of Lausanne. Its beginnings are older, although their precise date remains uncertain. The parish dates the foundations to the 12th century, while Kirchenvisite describes the core more cautiously as probably dating from the 12th or 13th century. Building investigations have identified evidence of earlier construction but have deliberately avoided assigning every phase a firm date.
Major work during the 15th century gave the church much of its present character. The timber ceiling over the nave was installed in 1456. According to the specialist Vitrosearch building record, wall paintings were added around 1480, while work on the choir and further paintings followed around 1500.
The church is therefore better understood as a building developed in stages than as a single 12th-century structure.
The paintings begin beneath the canopy over the western entrance. Here visitors can see the Annunciation, St Christopher carrying the Christ Child and St George confronting the dragon.
Inside, the south wall presents a Marian cycle based on the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James. Its scenes include Joachim and Anna meeting at the Golden Gate and the birth of Mary, shown as a medieval domestic event.
The north wall carries a cycle from the life, Passion and death of Christ, framed by the Transfiguration and Ascension. Behind the organ on the west wall, Mary is crowned Queen of Heaven among music-making angels and saints. In the choir, six life-size apostles appear on the north wall, while an angel swings a censer above the sacrament niche.
These images were not created as historic decoration. They belonged to the devotional and visual setting of a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The Zweisimmen parish’s account provides a detailed description of the individual scenes.
Following the Bern Disputation, the Bernese Council ordered the abolition of the Mass and the removal of religious images on 27 January 1528. The University Library of Bern places this decision within the wider introduction of the Reformation in Bern.
According to the parish history, Zweisimmen’s wall paintings were whitewashed shortly afterward. The whitewash belonged to the removal of Catholic images from religious use; it was not a conservation programme. Nevertheless, substantial parts of the paintings remained recoverable beneath the covering.
The paintings remained hidden for almost four centuries. They were discovered in 1927 and restored between 1947 and 1951.
The important distinction: The Reformation did not intentionally save the paintings. It removed them from view. Their survival beneath the later surface was an unintended consequence.
The surviving scheme therefore tells two stories. The pictures document the church before the Reformation, while their concealment and rediscovery show what the Reformation changed and how a later generation reconsidered the medieval past.
The building remains an active Reformed church used for worship and concerts rather than a museum. Its particular historical force comes from the coexistence of a Reformed worship space and the recovered imagery of its Catholic Marian past.
The current federal cultural-property inventory lists the church and parsonage as an A-category property of national significance, KGS no. 1367.
Zweisimmen Church is a landmark not because time stopped there, but because its principal layers remain visible: medieval origins, late-Gothic enlargement and painting, Reformation whitewash, 20th-century rediscovery and continuing religious use.
Kirchenvisite currently lists visiting hours of 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM daily, with exceptions.
Because this remains a working church, check the parish calendar and contact information before making a special journey.
The main pedestrian approach includes a covered wooden stair. Visitors requiring step-free access can consult the verified accessibility record and confirm the appropriate entrance with the parish.
Updated August 24, 2026: Originally published lower on this page on August 18, this article was revised and moved to its current position.
Current performance status: Only two performances of Soldat Vögeli remain at Lätzgüetli in Saanenmöser: Wednesday, August 26 at 20:00 and Friday, August 28 at 20:00, the final performance.
The organiser’s current notice states that advance sales are sold out, apart from a small number of wheelchair-accessible places including accompanying seats. It also says that a few tickets may be available at the evening box office from 18:00. Availability is not guaranteed, and weather information is published five hours before each performance.
The production deserves more than a place in an events calendar. It shows how an older Swiss folk play can be remade through regional speech, existing buildings, historical objects and the coordinated work of approximately 100 people.
The Freilichttheaterverein Saanenland describes Soldat Vögeli as a new open-air version of Tambour Bucheli, a folk play by Franz Bühler. Ruth Domke adapted the text and directs the 2026 production.
According to an interview with Ruth and Jürg Domke, they first staged the source play with the Grubenchörli more than 30 years ago on a small indoor stage. Ruth directed that production and Jürg appeared in it. They believed that its farm setting, physical action and historical atmosphere could be developed more fully outdoors.
The Saanenmöser production is consequently not a simple revival of the earlier performance. Ruth Domke shortened the original, moderated some of its rougher language and adapted its Lucerne dialect. A later report on the production explains that the revised dialect was intended to suit the region while remaining understandable to visitors.
The action takes place at the fictional Sonnegg farm near the French border during Switzerland’s mobilisation in the Second World War. Berth Vögeli is a foundling who has been raised on the farm and has become its head farmhand. Mobilisation sends him away to serve at the border, while the people at home confront family conflict, scarcity, uncertainty and questions of belonging.
The wartime setting gives the story its pressure, but the central concerns are not limited to military events. The play examines how people behave when resources are restricted, loyalties are tested and private resentments collide with a need for solidarity.
The setting at Lätzgüetli is not merely an open field containing a temporary stage. Oliver Domke’s visual concept incorporates structures already standing on the site. A former lift building becomes the parsonage, an additional entrance has been constructed for a shed, and material from an earlier production has been reused.
Historical objects extend that physical setting. Old military bicycles, an agricultural vehicle and a motorcycle with a sidecar help create the period atmosphere. Jürg Domke told the local newspaper that some vehicles were bought and prepared for the production while others were borrowed.
These details should not be mistaken for evidence that the plot records an actual wartime incident in Saanenmöser. The published accounts identify Soldat Vögeli as an adaptation of Bühler’s stage play, not as a reconstruction of a documented local event. Its connection to Saanenmöser lies in how the story has been staged, spoken and interpreted there.
Approximately 20 people appear onstage, including 12 performers with speaking roles and a group of additional actors and extras. The production required around 50 costumes.
Iris Gasser coordinated the costumes, props and decoration. Much of the material was found in attics, cellars and the theatre association’s existing collection before being selected, altered or supplemented for the production. The result was therefore assembled through research and adaptation rather than purchased as a completely new set of costumes.
The cast represents only one part of the project. According to the organising committee quoted by the Anzeiger von Saanen, around 100 people were involved.
The work included scenery and construction, the grandstand, tents and ramps, electrical distribution, fire protection, toilets, safety planning, transport, parking, publicity, ticketing and catering. It is most accurately described as an association-led community production: the available sources do not establish that every participant worked without payment.
The association also brought in specialist artistic support. Trained actor Sarah Iseli provided an external view of the developing production, while professional musician and composer Reto Stadelmann supplied original music.
Ruth and Jürg Domke have presented the production as a way of remembering what earlier generations experienced during wartime without turning that experience into heroism or glorification.
That distinction is important. The play uses fictional characters and dramatic conflict, but its atmosphere draws upon the uncertainty surrounding mobilisation and the pressures placed on families and communities. Its themes—solidarity, envy, fear, social pressure and courage—allow the production to address historical memory without claiming to be a documentary record.
The local importance of Soldat Vögeli therefore comes from the act of interpretation itself: an older play has been translated into the region’s speech, landscape, material culture and working relationships.
The production continues a series recorded in the association’s published history. Its roots include the staging of Madrisa in Saanen in 2009. The newly founded association subsequently presented Farinet der Falschmünzer in Gsteig in 2014 and its own production, Der Schwarz Steff, in 2018.
Soldat Vögeli follows the same ambitious community model: a production developed over many months, shaped around a particular location and supported by people working across artistic, technical and practical roles.
Wednesday, August 26, 2026: 20:00
Friday, August 28, 2026: 20:00 — final performance
Venue: Lätzgüetli, Saanenmöser, near the railway station
Admission: CHF 45
Advance sales: Sold out, except for a small number of wheelchair-accessible places including accompanying seats
Evening box office: A few tickets may be available from 18:00
Catering: Opens two hours before the performance
Weather information: Published five hours before the performance
Check the latest ticket position, weather notice and performance status on the official Freilichttheaterverein Saanenland website before travelling.
Reporting note: This article was updated on August 24, 2026. Ticket availability and weather-dependent performance information may change after publication.
August 23, 2026
Summary: The Bach family ended its annual Gummalp cattle auction on 8 August 2026, closing a tradition begun in 1977. Its history shows how an Alpine market adapted to roads, breeding technology and changing agricultural policy.
In Detail: The final sale should not be mistaken for the disappearance of cattle trading in the Saanenland. It was the conclusion of one family-run institution: an auction of the family’s own cattle, created to bring buyers to animals summering high above the valley. The regional auction model continues at Hornberg, and cattle remain on Gummalp.
The fullest account comes from Jonathan Schopfer’s August 2026 interview with Ueli Bach, the Feutersoey cattle dealer who helped establish the event with his father Adolf and brother Marcel. Bach described the auction as a practical response to distance. Before the alp was fully accessible by road, customers had to climb for more than an hour to inspect animals. Gathering the cattle and prospective buyers on the first Saturday in August turned many separate journeys into one organized market.
The family’s decision also followed a change in its business. Adolf Bach had prepared breeding bulls for sale, but Ueli Bach recalled that demand weakened as artificial insemination spread. The family consequently placed more emphasis on breeding cows.
This local recollection fits the national technological chronology. Swissgenetics records the creation of the Swiss artificial-insemination association in 1960, followed by performance and progeny testing in 1964 and the introduction of frozen-semen technology in 1966. Genetics could increasingly travel without the corresponding bull. That did not eliminate cattle markets, but it changed what breeders and dealers needed from them.
The Gummalp auction began in 1977. Unlike a multi-consignor sale, its catalogue contained cattle belonging to the Bach family. It therefore served several purposes at once: animals could change hands, buyers could assess the dealer’s stock and the event could promote the family’s year-round trade. Bach said the first edition sold every animal offered. He also remembered it as the first Swiss auction of its particular kind. A 2021 account of auction caller Alois Wyss gives the same 1977 origin, but neither source is a national register of livestock sales. The claim to have been first in Switzerland should therefore remain attributed rather than presented as independently established.
The auction’s scale changed when access improved. Bach recalled that vehicles could reach the alp by 1984 and that attendance in the strongest years rose as high as approximately 2,000. The event became more than a transaction point. Food, music and conversation allowed farmers, dealers and visitors to meet during a season when agricultural work often kept them apart.
Those historical crowd figures are recollections reported by the local newspaper, not audited attendance records. No verified attendance or sales total for the final auction on 8 August 2026 was located. It would therefore be unsafe to estimate the last crowd from photographs or to describe the final sale as either commercially successful or unsuccessful without additional evidence.
By the end of the auction’s half-century run, cattle breeding operated within formal, data-based systems. The federal government supports recognized breeding organizations, herd books and the evaluation of breeding traits through its livestock-breeding programme. Since 2000, the national animal-traffic database has recorded bovine births, movements and slaughter. A catalogue and a dealer’s judgement still mattered, but they came to operate within a much denser system of identification and performance records.
Agricultural policy changed as well. Bach associated the introduction of direct payments in 1993 with falling cattle prices and weaker trade. That is his interpretation of the local market, not proof of a single national cause. The Federal Office for Agriculture describes reform as a process unfolding in stages from the 1990s and identifies 2002 as the decisive replacement of price support with payments decoupled from production. Weather, feed supplies, animal quality and the milk and meat markets can also influence demand and price.
Direct payments themselves should not be described simply as a subsidy for producing more cattle. The federal system compensates farms for public-interest services that include maintaining cultivated landscapes and supporting decentralized settlement. The cultural-landscape contribution rules explain how Alpine grazing sits within that wider framework.
Ueli Bach presented the closure as his decision to stop at the half-century mark, while saying that he would continue trading cattle. The report does not identify insolvency, regulation or a single external event as the reason the auction ended. Nor does it establish that no future organizer could ever hold a sale at the same location. The precise conclusion is narrower: the Bach family’s annual Gummalp auction has ended.
The regional auction model remains active. At the 47th Hornberg cattle auction in August 2026, 51 of 59 entered animals were presented and 26 were sold in the ring, with further dealing afterward. Hornberg differs from Gummalp because it brings together animals from multiple owners. Its continuation prevents the final Gummalp sale from being turned into an unsupported story about the end of cattle auctions throughout the Saanenland.
Gummalp also remains a working agricultural place. Bach reported that Robin Kohli had leased the alp and its associated valley farm. A current Berner Bauernhof listing identifies Kohli as the contact and says the cattle spend the summer on Gummalp. The auction has stopped; the grazing, animal care and seasonal work have not.
That is why the event is worth remembering without romanticizing it. The auction was not an ornamental survival from an unchanging Alpine past. It was a commercial solution to a difficult journey, reshaped by a road, new breeding technology, public policy and the changing economics of cattle. Its final edition marks the end of one adaptable local institution, not the end of farming on the alp.
Reporting note: This article reflects material available through 23 August 2026. Historical crowd and sales claims are attributed where appropriate. No verified attendance or sales total for the final auction was found.
Anzeiger von Saanen: Ueli Bach and the history of the Gummalp auction
Anzeiger von Saanen: Alois Wyss and the reported 1977 origin of the auction form
Swissgenetics: history of artificial insemination and cattle-genetics services
Federal Office for Agriculture: cultural-landscape and summer-pasture contributions
August 23, 2026
Fibre is coming to parts of the municipality of Saanen, but the public announcement does not tell us which household or business will be connected first. Swisscom’s original notice, published on 16 April 2025, said construction was planned to begin in 2026, that the first new connections were expected to become usable from autumn 2026 and that the announced stage would continue into 2027. Those are rollout forecasts, not confirmation that a particular address is already live.
That distinction matters. A place name can identify an expansion area without guaranteeing that every building in it will be connected at the same time. As of 23 August 2026, the public material reviewed for this note does not identify the first activated addresses, publish a street-by-street construction order or confirm that a specific new Saanen connection is already carrying service.
Swisscom’s Saanen rollout announcement names the following areas for the 2026–27 stage:
Schönried Waldmatte;
Grüenbühl;
Gruben;
Ebnit;
Mettlen;
Untergstaad;
the part of central Gstaad north of Gschwendstrasse and Lauenenstrasse;
Gstaad-Bissen; and
Turbach.
This is not the same as saying that all of Schönried, all of Gstaad or the entire municipality is included in one simultaneous build. The wording is quite specific in places: it names Waldmatte in Schönried and only the northern portion of central Gstaad. Swisscom said that further stages were intended and gave Gstaad Wispile as an example, but it did not publish a completion date for that later area.
The most accurate answer to “who receives fibre first?” is therefore: addresses inside the announced construction areas that become technically ready and complete the necessary property and installation steps. The release does not reveal their order.
The Saanen project is described as FTTH, or Fibre to the Home. The Federal Office of Communications defines FTTH as a telecommunications network in which fibre is laid to residential and commercial buildings. It should not be confused with hybrid technologies in which fibre reaches a street cabinet or another nearby point and copper carries the signal over the final section.
Even within an FTTH expansion area, however, three milestones should not be collapsed into one. Civil works may have begun; a building may have been reached; and a service at a particular flat or business may have been activated. Only the last of those means that a user can connect through a working fibre service.
Swisscom’s current guidance on the transition from copper says that service requires both a completed network at the location and an installed fibre-optic socket in the home. If a socket is absent, an installation appointment may still be required. Structural authorisation and the position of the socket are arranged with the property owner. A tenant in a named rollout neighbourhood should therefore not assume that the flat is ready merely because work is visible nearby.
Swisscom called the planned Saanen expansion free of charge. Its general property-connection guidance says a property is normally connected without charge during the regular area rollout and that an authorised construction partner handles the agreement and building work. That statement concerns the standard network connection. It does not make an internet subscription free, and optional or later work can carry costs.
Nor does the construction announcement require a household to buy a Swisscom-branded plan. Swisscom said providers including Wingo, Salt and Sunrise would be able to offer services over its network. Actual packages, prices and activation dates must nevertheless be checked with the chosen provider for the precise address; the appearance of a company in the announcement is not a promise that every one of its products will be available everywhere on the same day.
The announced network supports advertised bandwidth of up to 10 Gbit/s. “Up to” is important. The speed available to a customer depends on the subscribed product and an active connection. The speed experienced on an individual device can also be limited by the router, local wiring, Wi-Fi conditions, the device itself and the remote service being used. A 10 Gbit/s-capable network should not be described as proof that every connected laptop will operate at 10 Gbit/s.
National figures require the same care. The Federal Communications Commission reported that used FTTH/B connections accounted for about 35.2 percent of Swiss fixed-broadband subscriptions at the end of 2024. That is a measure of subscriptions using fibre to the home or building—not the percentage of properties passed by a network, and not a measure of Saanen’s rollout.
Switzerland’s universal-service rules do not guarantee FTTH at every address either. ComCom’s current guidance specifies internet transmission rates of 10/1 Mbit/s or, at the customer’s request, 80/8 Mbit/s under the universal service. That basic obligation should not be mistaken for a right to a 10 Gbit/s fibre connection or for a deadline in Saanen.
The practical source is the Swisscom availability checker. Enter the full street address and select the exact result, rather than relying on a postcode or village name. The checker distinguishes technologies available at that address, displays the stated maximum speed and shows Swisscom products that can be ordered.
The result still needs to be read cautiously. Swisscom says speeds can vary within a municipality because different technologies and expansion areas are involved. It also says rollout information is generally shown around 18 months before expansion, while disclaiming a guarantee that checker information is always current, correct or complete. A future date in the checker is still an estimate. A result showing an orderable fibre product is stronger evidence of service readiness.
Property owners should also watch for a direct approach from Swisscom or its authorised construction partner. Tenants can ask their owner or building manager whether the connection agreement and any required in-building work have been arranged. No one should infer an activation date solely from excavation in the street.
The useful follow-up is not another general announcement that fibre is coming. It is a measured account of delivery: the date of the first active connection; the number of homes and businesses ready for service in each named area; the proportion still awaiting property access or internal installation; and the timetable for settlements outside the first stage. It should also distinguish addresses connected to FTTH from addresses still using copper, cable, a hybrid fibre technology or a wireless alternative.
Until those figures are published, the fairest conclusion is modest. Saanen has an announced FTTH programme with an initial set of areas and a forecast that the first connections can be used from autumn 2026. It does not yet have a publicly documented queue showing exactly who comes first.
Fact-check note: A municipal reproduction of the announcement contains one sentence referring to construction from spring 2025, while its heading and later text refer to the 2026 rollout. Swisscom’s original release and the contemporary local report both state that construction was planned from 2026. This article therefore follows the primary Swisscom chronology. This independent note has no affiliation with a telecommunications provider and contains no affiliate links.
August 23, 2026
Update: September 16, 2026
Gsteig has now published a second call for candidates for the remaining municipal council seat. Each nomination must be signed by at least ten eligible voters and by the candidate, then submitted to the municipal clerk’s office by 4:00 p.m. on October 9, 2026.
If only one eligible candidate is nominated, that person may be declared elected without a ballot. If more than one candidate is nominated, the public election will take place on November 29. Any required runoff election will be held on December 20.
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Gsteig opened an ordinary renewal election for two members of its municipal council. By the end of the published nomination period, however, it had received only one proposal: Robin Kohli, born in 1995, a resident of Gsteig and a new candidate rather than an incumbent.
That result produced two different outcomes. Kohli has secured one seat through an unopposed, or stille, election. The second seat remains to be filled, and the municipality has announced that it will issue another call for candidates. It had not yet published the date or deadline for that second call in the sources available on 23 August 2026.
This distinction matters. Kohli was not a single candidate running for two positions, and the municipal council did not simply award both seats to the only person who came forward. He was formally declared elected to one seat. The other position is still unresolved.
The clearest account appears in the municipality’s official notice published on 18 August. It describes the process as an ordinary renewal election taking effect on 1 January 2027 and states that two council members were to be chosen.
Only Kohli’s nomination arrived during the original filing period. Under Article 4 of Gsteig’s municipal ballot-election regulations, the council then had one week in which it could submit a nomination of its own. According to the notice, those efforts did not produce another willing candidate.
The municipality therefore separated the filled seat from the unfilled one. Relying on Article 6 of the same regulations, the council declared Kohli elected for four years beginning on 1 January 2027. For the remaining seat, it announced a second public call.
The municipal website’s election-document page also lists the 2027 council-renewal material. Readers should consult that page again when the new call appears, because the next notice should establish the filing period and the procedure that follows it.
An unopposed election is easy to describe imprecisely. In this case there was no contest between several candidates and therefore no public vote producing a tally, turnout figure or winning margin. The municipality followed its published procedure and formally confirmed the only nominated candidate for one of the available seats.
It would consequently be misleading to say that Kohli “won the vote.” It would also be misleading to describe him as having been appointed in the ordinary sense by the sitting council. The council made the formal declaration required for an unopposed election after the nomination process produced no competing candidate for his seat.
The absence of a ballot does mean that voters had no choice between competing people for that position. That is a consequence of the number of nominations, not evidence that a scheduled contest was cancelled after votes had been cast.
The official notice identifies Kohli by name, year of birth and residence, and marks him as a new council member. The local newspaper’s account describes him as non-party-affiliated.
Kohli is already associated with a form of responsibility central to the area. A 2025 profile by UFA-Revue reported that he took over his family’s farm in Gsteig in 2016, when he was 20, and subsequently expanded the operation. That agricultural background may help readers understand who the new member is, but it does not yet establish what portfolio he will hold or how he will approach particular municipal decisions. Those subjects require his later record or direct statements.
Gsteig’s scale makes the recruitment question unusually visible. The municipality recorded 1,063 residents and 689 eligible voters on 31 December 2024; the latter figure included 38 eligible Swiss citizens living abroad. These are dated reference figures, not the electoral roll for the 2026 nomination process, but they provide useful context.
A single nomination for two seats due for renewal is therefore worth reporting. It shows that the initial call did not supply enough people to fill both positions. It does not, by itself, prove political apathy, public hostility toward local office, a demographic crisis or dissatisfaction with the municipality. No published source reviewed for this article established why a second candidate did not come forward.
There are many plausible questions: How much time does council service require? How is it combined with a farm, business, family or other employment? What support is available to a new member? Do eligible residents understand the work and the nomination process? Those are reporting questions, not answers that can be inferred from one incomplete slate.
The next official notice will be more than an administrative formality. It should make clear when nominations close, what a valid proposal must contain and what happens if exactly one candidate, several candidates or no candidate is proposed. Until that notice is published, assigning a date to a possible ballot would be premature.
The eventual allocation of council responsibilities is also not yet established by Kohli’s election notice. Nor does the notice identify the person who may fill the remaining position. Reporting should keep those questions open rather than treating the composition of the 2027 council as settled.
The accurate headline, for now, is modest but revealing: Gsteig sought two council members, found one candidate during the first nomination period and used the procedure in its election regulations to confirm him. The municipality has said it will now ask again for someone to take the second seat.
Reporting note: This article reflects information published through 23 August 2026. It does not infer why no second candidate was nominated. The status should be updated when Gsteig publishes the announced second call or declares its result.
August 16, 2026
Summary: The Sanetsch cable car remains open to visitors, but the Magic Pass and Gstaad Summer Pass no longer include the ride. From the 2026 summer season, public access is offered through one-way and return fares rather than those passes.
Kraftwerk Sanetsch AG says demand rose sharply during the 2025 summer season and exceeded what the cable car could manage on peak days and during holiday periods.
According to figures supplied by BKW Senior Communication Manager Manfred Joss and reported by the Anzeiger von Saanen, passenger journeys increased from approximately 17,000 in 2024 to more than 28,400 in 2025. That is an increase of 67 per cent.
The published figures describe journeys rather than unique visitors. They also do not isolate how many additional rides were made with the Magic Pass rather than the other network product. The increase was especially consequential because this is a small installation. Its eight-person cabin can transport approximately 40 passengers per direction per hour. The operator links the pressure to network inclusion, but that inclusion did not increase the cable car’s physical capacity.
The Gsteig–Sanetsch cable car is primarily an industrial cableway used to operate the Sanetsch power plant and is mostly run by plant personnel. Tourist carriage is secondary.
Construction of the dedicated industrial cableway began in 1959. The present eight-person installation dates from 1989 and has been open to the public during the summer since 1994.
BKW Energie AG and Energie Wasser Bern each hold 50 per cent of Kraftwerk Sanetsch AG. The cable car connects Innergsteig with the Sanetsch reservoir area and provides access to the high landscape leading towards the Sanetsch Pass and Valais.
The operator says tourist use can continue only within the cable car’s operational capabilities; it has not announced a capacity expansion.
Bicycle traffic contributed to the 2025 demand. According to the BKW account reported by the Anzeiger von Saanen, riders arriving from the Valais side sometimes converged on the cable car for the descent towards Gsteig. On busy days, the resulting waits extended beyond the published operating hours.
The operator continues to carry bicycles for a separate charge. Up to four can be mounted outside the cabin on a trip. Additional bicycles and e-bikes can be carried inside only when space permits, and passengers without bicycles have priority.
This can concentrate demand at the upper station: cyclists may arrive from the Valais side without having used the cable car on the outward journey, then seek the same small descent service at similar times.
Cyclists continuing towards Valais should carry lights; the operator warns that the route includes unlit tunnels.
The operator expects passenger journeys to return towards earlier levels after the end of pass acceptance and says lower tourism revenue is acceptable. The decision preserves a limited public service within the operating conditions of the power plant rather than expanding tourist capacity.
The decision illustrates what can happen when a broad access product brings more people to a facility whose scale and principal purpose remain unchanged. The question is not simply whether demand rose, but whether the infrastructure could absorb that rise without unreliable service and excessive waits.
As of August 16, 2026, the operator published the following information:
Season: June 13–October 11, 2026.
Hours: Daily, 8:30 AM–5:00 PM.
Disruptions: Strong wind or adverse weather can suspend service.
Reservations: None; service is first come, first served.
Passes: Magic Pass and Gstaad Summer Pass are not valid.
Bicycles: A separate fare and space restrictions apply.
Operating conditions, fares and bicycle rules can change. Check the official timetable and current operating notices before travelling.
Current dam-maintenance notice: Construction began on July 20 and was expected to continue until the end of August. The operator’s broader notice said work on the upstream side of the dam would continue until approximately the beginning of September 2026. During construction, access to the dam is closed and visitors must follow the designated hiking diversion. This maintenance work is separate from the decision to end pass acceptance.
Anyone planning a route through the area should check both the current cable-car status and the dam-access notice shortly before departure.
August 16, 2026
Summary: A petition asks the Municipality of Saanen to examine what its initiator describes as conflicts between children travelling to school and visitors stopping on the Dorfbrücke for photographs. The petition is under review; none of its suggested measures has been adopted.
The petition reported under the title Sicherer Schulweg Saanen was initiated by Saanen resident Marina Schopfer.
According to reporting published by the Anzeiger von Saanen on August 14, the Municipality of Saanen confirmed that it had received the petition and was processing it. As of August 16, 2026, no decision or adopted measure had been announced.
Schopfer estimated that more than 170 people had signed. The municipality had not yet confirmed the exact number, so this should be understood as the initiator’s estimate rather than an official count.
Schopfer says large visitor groups can obstruct the crossing, causing children to step into the carriageway. The sources reviewed for this article do not include a bridge-specific police analysis, collision data or independent safety assessment establishing the scale of the risk.
The petition therefore raises a safety question for municipal examination. Its submission does not itself establish that the bridge has been officially classified as unsafe.
The Dorfbrücke is a road bridge over the Saane near Saanen railway station. Local reporting commonly refers to it as the Saanen Bridge. A scene from the 1995 film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was filmed there.
The film, directed by Aditya Chopra and starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol, gave several Swiss locations a lasting place in Indian popular culture. The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs has described tours that bring fans to the Saanen bridge, where some visitors recreate poses, dialogue or scenes for their own photographs and videos.
The bridge also remains an ordinary road crossing. According to the petition and local reporting, children use it while travelling to and from school. The present issue arises when that daily movement coincides with groups stopping at the filming location.
The complete petition has not been published online. According to the local report, its suggestions include:
information signs explaining that children also use the bridge;
coordination of announced tour buses outside peak school-route times;
clearer road or ground markings;
examination of a pedestrian crossing; and
a municipally organised traffic service at peak times.
These are proposals for the municipality to consider. They are not current rules, announced construction works or decisions already taken.
Schopfer has emphasised that the purpose is not to exclude visitors. The objective is a more orderly coexistence between people coming to see the filming location and children using the bridge as part of daily village life.
The relevant conflict is the simultaneous use of a limited piece of infrastructure by groups stopping for photographs, pedestrians trying to cross, schoolchildren and road traffic.
On August 14, the municipality told Blick that, based on its current information, the Dorfbrücke was expected to be replaced in the coming years. It was also studying whether the project should include a pedestrian bridge; no precise timetable had been set.
The petition places possible short-term visitor-management measures alongside this separate, longer-term project. A future replacement could take time, while signs, bus coordination or temporary traffic management would involve different decisions.
Article 38 of Saanen’s German-language organisational regulations requires the competent municipal body to examine and answer a petition within six months (translation by the author). The cited reports do not give the exact submission date, so a precise response deadline cannot yet be calculated.
Although Saanen’s rules require examination and a reply, a Swiss petition is not legally binding and does not compel approval of a requested measure. It also requires no minimum number of signatures. Even a formal answer would not mean that physical or operational changes had already been implemented.
As of August 16, 2026, the petition had been received and remained under review; no proposed remedy had been adopted.
People visiting the filming location should keep the crossing and carriageway clear, avoid delaying people using the bridge for everyday journeys, and follow any signs or instructions in place. Visitors should avoid making identifiable children the subject of photographs or videos and should respect any request not to be recorded.
The bridge’s importance to film fans and its importance to local movement do not have to cancel one another. The unresolved question is how Saanen will manage both uses when they converge at the same time.
August 10, 2026
What became the Gstaad Menuhin Festival began with two concerts in a church—not in the Festival Tent, and not in the village of Gstaad. On 4 and 6 August 1957, four musicians came together at the Mauritius Church in the village of Saanen. The festival’s English-language history calls the pair “Two Exclusive Concerts”: a small beginning for what would become one of Switzerland’s major classical-music festivals.
The immediate origin lay in a request made the previous year. In 1956, Paul Valentin, then the local tourism director, asked Yehudi Menuhin whether he would help enrich the summer season with concerts. Menuhin accepted the idea, and the first concerts followed in Saanen in August 1957.
The founding group was remarkable: Yehudi Menuhin; the French cellist Maurice Gendron; Benjamin Britten, at the piano and harpsichord; and the tenor Peter Pears. The setting was not a grand concert hall but the Mauritius Church, known locally as the Mauritiuskirche. It remains one of the festival’s listed venues.
The official history refers to the early summer concerts as the Yehudi-Menuhin-Musiksommer. The present-day festival name is therefore useful but slightly misleading if it makes the reader imagine that the whole story began in Gstaad itself. It began in Saanen.
The festival’s own history records the development from two events to nine, centred mainly on chamber music and chamber-orchestra concerts. From 1958, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Edmond de Stoutz, also took part.
That early growth matters because it explains the character of the festival before it became associated with large-scale orchestral performances and the Gstaad Festival Tent. Its first model was chamber music in a village church: musicians gathered around Menuhin, a close audience, and a setting that made the landscape and the local community part of the experience.
The festival history describes this as a continuing principle. Menuhin’s family and friends later contributed to the Saanen church evenings, and the festival says that “the spirit of making music with friends” became its Leitmotif—its guiding thread.
This is not a pedantic distinction. The inaugural concerts were in Saanen, not Gstaad; both are distinct localities within the municipality of Saanen.
The name “Gstaad Menuhin Festival” now identifies an event spread across a wider area. In the 2026 programme, concerts appear in Saanen, Gstaad, Lauenen, Gsteig, Zweisimmen, and Rougemont. The festival’s broader venue directory also includes places such as Château-d’Œx, Vers-l’Église, Boltigen, Lenk, and Abländschen.
That directory should not be read as a guarantee that every place hosts a concert in every season. A concert’s individual listing is the authority for its actual venue. But the wider geography is fundamental to understanding the festival: it is a regional event, not a single-venue series in Gstaad.
When choosing a concert, check the exact building and locality as carefully as the artist, programme, and date. A ticket headed “Menuhin Festival Gstaad” may lead to the Festival Tent in Gstaad, the Mauritius Church in Saanen, a church in Lauenen or Gsteig, or a venue farther along the regional rail and road network.
The festival’s official venue and navigation pages give the relevant locality and address. This is especially useful when arranging accommodation, parking, a train connection, or a late return after an evening concert.
The central historical fact remains beautifully simple: the festival began with Menuhin and three fellow musicians in Saanen’s Mauritius Church. Its later scale has changed, but the founding image—a group of friends making music in a village church—still explains the character the festival claims as its own.
August 4, 2026
The Alpine Cheese and Bell Market will return to Saanen on Saturday, September 19, 2026.
The Municipality of Saanen’s official 2026 market calendar confirms the date. The complete programme and final opening hours should be checked when they are published closer to the event.
The market brings together Alpine cheese, bells and Treicheln, regional products, music, farming knowledge, and the people who make or use these objects.
Its title joins two products connected with livestock culture. Cheese allows summer milk to survive across time. Bells help people manage animals across space.
Fresh milk is highly perishable and contains a large amount of water.
On a mountain pasture, transporting every milking immediately to the valley would historically have been difficult. Cheesemaking offered another solution. Milk could be processed near the animals, concentrating much of its nutritional and economic value into a form that could mature, be stored, and eventually be carried or sold.
The process separates curds from whey, removes moisture, and controls salt, temperature, and maturation. The result is not simply milk with a different flavor. It is a product designed to last.
This is one reason cheese became so important in Alpine regions. It moved the value of summer grass and milk beyond the few hours during which fresh milk remained usable.
Berner Alpkäse AOP is made during the Alpine grazing season from raw milk produced on recognized summer pastures in the Bernese Oberland and adjoining areas.
The protected specification governs where production may take place and how the milk and cheese must be handled. Traditional production uses a copper vat, with the milk processed while fresh. Berner Hobelkäse is selected from suitable Alpine cheese and matured for a substantially longer period until it becomes harder and suitable for shaving into thin pieces.
The distinction is therefore more than a marketing name. It involves origin, production, selection, moisture, maturation, texture, and intended use.
Rennet-based hard-cheese production spread through the Bernese Oberland around the beginning of the sixteenth century.
The Swiss PDO-PGI Association records that Johannes Stumpf’s 1548 chronicle praised cheeses identified as Sibenthaler and Saanerkäss. The names connect cheese production with the Simmental and Saanen regions almost five centuries ago.
That reference should not be used to claim that a cheese made today is identical to one produced in 1548. Animal breeds, equipment, hygiene, transport, regulation, and commercial systems have changed.
The continuity lies in the central task: milk produced on seasonal mountain pasture is transformed into a durable food capable of being stored and traded.
As hard-cheese production developed, Alpine dairy work became increasingly connected to regional and international trade.
A wheel of cheese could travel much farther than the milk from which it was made. It allowed mountain communities to convert a seasonal and perishable resource into something with lasting commercial value.
Historical documentation assembled for the protected-origin registration traces the product’s development, its relationship to the Bernese Oberland, and the growing economic importance of Alpine cheese. The Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture provides the historical study, product specification, and application summary as downloadable documents.
Berner Alpkäse and Berner Hobelkäse entered Switzerland’s protected-origin register in 2004.
An AOP designation means that the product’s name is connected with a defined geographical area and that the essential stages of production must follow an approved specification within that region.
The protection does not mean that every cheese tastes identical. Individual Alps, producers, seasonal conditions, milk composition, and maturation can still produce differences.
The designation instead establishes a shared foundation. It tells buyers that the name refers to a regulated regional product rather than a general Alpine image applied anywhere.
The market creates an opportunity to move beyond the broad phrase “local cheese.” Visitors can ask:
On which Alp was the cheese made?
Swiss German: Uf wellerä Alp isch dä Chäs gmacht wordä?
Was it made from cow, goat, or sheep milk?
Swiss German: Isch er us Chuh-, Geissä- oder Schofmilch gmacht?
How old is it?
Swiss German: Wiä alt isch er?
Is it Berner Alpkäse or Berner Hobelkäse?
Swiss German: Isch es Berner Alpkäs oder Berner Hobelchäs?
How did the 2026 pasture season affect production?
Swiss German: Wiä hät sich d'Alpsaison 2026 uf d'Produktion usgwürkt?
Was the cheese made by the seller or by another producer?
Swiss German: Hät dä Verkäufer dä Chäs sälber gmacht oder chonnt er vonäme anderä Produzänt?
How should it be stored and served?
Swiss German: Wiä sött mer en lagerä und servierä?
Pronunciation Tips
Chä-: The "Ch" sound is a deep, throaty sound, similar to the "ch" in the Scottish word "loch" or the German name "Bach".
ä / ö / ü: These vowels are pronounced short and sharp. The "ä" sounds like the "a" in the English word "cat".
Swiss-German pronunciation varies by region and speaker. These spellings and pronunciation notes are approximate; a local Saanenland speaker can provide the most natural pronunciation.
Livestock bells have practical origins.
Sound can help a farmer detect an animal hidden by terrain, trees, darkness, or fog. Different tones may also make individual animals or groups easier to recognize.
Ceremonial bells and Treicheln are larger and more decorative than ordinary pasture equipment. Their leather straps may carry embroidery, metal ornaments, names, or symbols associated with a family, farm, club, or event.
At a market, the bell becomes both a working object and a product of specialized craft. Its form, tone, metal, and strap can be examined rather than treated merely as a Swiss emblem.
Previous editions have combined cheese and regional foods with music, demonstrations, tastings, bells, and opportunities to meet producers.
The 2025 event was held alongside the Bernese Alpine Cheese Championship. Local reporting recorded 130 submitted wheels across several categories and described the judging, volunteer work, producer participation, and medals awarded to Saanenland Alps.
That competition should not be assumed to return in the same form in 2026 unless it is separately announced. Its presence in 2025 nevertheless shows the depth of technical knowledge surrounding the market.
Cheese judging considers more than whether a sample tastes pleasant. Texture, aroma, appearance, consistency, maturity, and faults can all matter.
A cheese displayed in September is the result of work performed over many months.
Animals were moved to pasture. Milking took place every day. Fresh milk was processed quickly. Wheels were salted, turned, inspected, transported, and matured.
The market makes that long sequence visible at the point when the finished product reaches the public.
This is the strongest reason to attend. The stalls are not merely an arrangement of regional goods. They are the public result of a seasonal system involving animals, plants, weather, buildings, knowledge, and human labor.
The Alpine Cheese and Bell Market is scheduled for Saturday, September 19, 2026, in Saanen.
Saanen village center is within walking distance of Saanen railway station.
And make sure to discover (on this site) Gstaad and Cheese
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Disclosure: AI tools assist with research, summaries, drafting, and editorial review. Their use varies by article and stage of the writing process. Ardan Michael Blum writes, revises, and updates the content, shapes its arguments and interpretations, and makes the final editorial decisions.
© 2026 Ardan Michael Blum.