Saas-Fee

Saas-Fee is the main village in the Saastal, or the Saas Valley, and is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. The villages in its neighborhood are Saas-Almagell, Saas-Grund and Saas-Balen.

Overview

Its location close to the glaciers of the Dom and the Allalinhorn provides winter sport opportunities throughout the year, and neighbouring peaks such as the Weissmies, the Nadelhorn and the Lenzspitze are popular climbs in the summer season. The community is considered to be a very attractive winter sport destination in the Swiss Alps. Typical activities include skiing, Snowboarding, snowshoe trekking, canyon climbing and ice climbing.

Saas-Fee offers 22 lifts, including 3 cable cars, 1 funicular railway (Metro Alpin), 5 gondolas (1 dedicated to walkers), 2 chairlifts, the remainder being surface lifts (draglifts). The ski run has a vertical drop of 1,800 m (5,906 ft), a top elevation of 3,550 m (11,647 ft) and covers 100 km (62 mi) (30 km (19 mi) beginner, 45 km (28 mi) intermediate, 25 km (16 mi) advanced). Other activities include paragliding, hang gliding, and tobogganing.

Saas-Fee can be reached by car or bus—postal buses run during much of the day half-hourly from Brig and Visp, though none provides a service beyond the bus terminal through the length of the town during the winter. No cars are allowed to enter the city (they have to be parked in special car parks outside); only small electric vehicles operate on the streets (and some petrol-driven garbage trucks). The decision to exclude most motor vehicles was made by the village at the time of the construction of the road from Saas Grund in 1951.

The resort offers many culture, sports and off-slope activities, including classical music, a sports and leisure complex, restaurants, and nightclubs. The resort features the highest underground funicular railway in the world up to the skiing area and the highest revolving restaurant in the world at 3,500 m (11,500 feet). The touristic slogan of Saas-Fee is "Die Perle der Alpen" (The pearl of the Alps). The campus of the European Graduate School is located in Saas-Fee.

Design guidelines for the village require houses to be 40 percent wooden, to maintain its architectural character.

History

Saas-Fee is first mentioned in 1304 as vee. The municipality was formerly known by its French name Fée ([fe]); however, that name is no longer used.

Geography

Saas-Fee has an area, as of 2011, of 40.6 square km. Of this area, 5.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 9.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.3% is settled (buildings or roads) and 83.6% is unproductive land.

The municipality is located in the Visp district, at the foot of Dom Mountain. The village is surrounded by thirteen Four-thousander mountains (mountains that are at least 4,000 meters (13,000 ft) above sea level).

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, the initials SSF Or between two Mullets [of Six] Argent in base Coupeaux Vert.

Religion

From the 2000 census, 1,177 or 80.9% were Roman Catholic, while 101 or 6.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 81 members of an Orthodox church (or about 5.57% of the population), and there was 1 individual who belongs to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish, and 12 (or about 0.83% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 22 (or about 1.51% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 55 individuals (or about 3.78% of the population) did not answer the question.

Mountains

Peak Elevation First climbed Ulrichshorn 7003392500000000000♠3,925 m (12,877 ft) 1848-08-10 Strahlhorn 7003419000000000000♠4,190 m (13,750 ft) 1854-08-15 Fletschhorn 7003399600000000000♠3,996 m (13,110 ft) 1854-08-28 Weissmies 7003402300000000000♠4,023 m (13,199 ft) 1855 - August Lagginhorn 7003401000000000000♠4,010 m (13,160 ft) 1856-08-26 Allalinhorn 7003402700000000000♠4,027 m (13,212 ft) 1856-08-28 Latelhorn 7003319800000000000♠3,198 m (10,492 ft) 1856-08-28 Dom 7003454500000000000♠4,545 m (14,911 ft) 1858-09-11 Nadelhorn 7003432700000000000♠4,327 m (14,196 ft) 1858-09-16 Rimpfischhorn 7003419800000000000♠4,198 m (13,773 ft) 1859-09-09 Alphubel 7003420600000000000♠4,206 m (13,799 ft) 1860-08-09 Täschhorn 7003449000000000000♠4,490 m (14,730 ft) 1862-07-30 Balfrin 7003379500000000000♠3,795 m (12,451 ft) 1863-07-06 Hohberghorn 7003421900000000000♠4,219 m (13,842 ft) 1869 Südlenz 7003429400000000000♠4,294 m (14,088 ft) 1870 Portjengrat 7003365300000000000♠3,653 m (11,985 ft) 1871-09-07 Sonnighorn 7003348700000000000♠3,487 m (11,440 ft) 1879 - August Dürrenhorn 7003403400000000000♠4,034 m (13,235 ft) 1879-09-07 Feechopf 7003388800000000000♠3,888 m (12,756 ft) 1883-07-28 Stecknadelhorn 7003424200000000000♠4,242 m (13,917 ft) 1887-08-08

In popular culture

Saas-Fee was the location where the video for Wham!'s hit single "Last Christmas" was filmed in 1984. The cable car that they get into to go up the mountain is labelled with the name "Saas-Fee" in the typical Saas-Fee font. This appears to be an artistic device as the cable car, now replaced by a more modern version, runs between the edge of Saas-Fee and Felskinn which is considerably above the normal height for residential buildings. Saas-Fee is also the setting of the second part of André Gide's novel Les faux-monnayeurs, as well as the setting of various ski chase sequences in the On Her Majesty's Secret Service film (1969) in the James Bond series.