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Hirzel
672 m
Zurich / Zug
The Hirzel is a gentle pass at 672 metres on the border of the cantons of Zürich and Zug, between Wädenswil on Lake Zürich and Sihlbrugg, with the village of Hirzel at its summit.
672 m
Zurich / Zug
The Hirzel is a gentle pass at 672 metres on the border of the cantons of Zürich and Zug, between Wädenswil on Lake Zürich and Sihlbrugg, with the village of Hirzel at its summit.
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DESCRIPTION
The Hirzel is a gentle pass at 672 metres on the border of the cantons of Zürich and Zug, between Wädenswil on Lake Zürich and Sihlbrugg, with the village of Hirzel at its summit. Modest as it is, it was once a working link in a great trade artery: an old mule road climbed over the Hirzel as part of the route running from the north through Zug and on past Lake Lucerne to Flüelen, the Gotthard and Italy – salt carried south and wine north, along with silk, iron, grain and cheese.
But Hirzel's lasting fame is literary. In the village on the pass, in 1827, Johanna Heusser – later Johanna Spyri – was born, the country doctor's daughter who would write Heidi, the best-loved of all Swiss children's books, translated into some fifty languages. The old schoolhouse where she went to school is now her museum. There is a quiet irony in it: the woman who gave the world its enduring image of the high Alps grew up not in the mountains but on this soft green Zürich ridge – she set Heidi's world near Chur in Graubünden, where she had spent several childhood summers. Today the Hirzel is a quiet road and a gentle cyclist's climb up from the lake – a humble pass that sent a little Alpine orphan around the world.
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