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Albis
793 m
Zurich
The Albis Pass is Zürich's own crossing, a gentle, wooded saddle at 793 metres on the long Albis ridge, linking Langnau am Albis with the little Türlersee and the green Knonaueramt beyond.
793 m
Zurich
The Albis Pass is Zürich's own crossing, a gentle, wooded saddle at 793 metres on the long Albis ridge, linking Langnau am Albis with the little Türlersee and the green Knonaueramt beyond.
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DESCRIPTION
The Albis Pass is Zürich's own crossing, a gentle, wooded saddle at 793 metres on the long Albis ridge, linking Langnau am Albis with the little Türlersee and the green Knonaueramt beyond. It is a modest height, but an old and useful one: first recorded in 1492, when the Zürich council made a decision on its upkeep, it was long regarded as an important route between Zürich and central Switzerland, and by 1713 the city's authorities reckoned hauling goods over the Albis simpler and cheaper than the roads through Horgen or Birmensdorf.
Today it is a forested escape close to the city, loved by walkers and cyclists, with an old watchtower and a mountain inn near the crest. Yet its quiet slopes hold one of the gravest moments in Swiss history. Just at its southern foot lies Kappel am Albis, where on 11 October 1531 Zürich's Protestant forces were routed in under an hour, and the reformer Huldrych Zwingli fell among some five hundred of his townsmen, a defeat that ended the dream of an exclusively Protestant Switzerland.
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