Canton Uri, Switzerland

 

Urbanisation? The Swiss canton of Uri does not even know this word. Uri canton has never heard of cities; the canton’s mostly German-speaking inhabitants live in municipalities and small towns of which the capital town Altdorf is the biggest one with slightly more than 8,500 inhabitants.

Life is peaceful and calm in the canton of Uri in Central Switzerland, which is delimitated by Lake Lucerne in the north and St. Gotthard in the south. Visitors can best enjoy themselves in small hotels and guesthouses, surrounded by magnificent natural scenery. Skiers, alpinists and hikers will surely enjoy the stay very much. But families who want to spend their holidays off the beaten track and who love the rural idyll are just as right in the canton of Uri.

Here in the canton of Uri, you will often hear Alemannic dialects; sometimes a little Italian; very often German. People here uphold their traditions, for example the reminiscence of William Tell in the Tell museum in Bürglen. Uri belongs to the original cantons, the first cantons of Switzerland. Rütli, where the famous oath was sworn, is located in the canton of Uri; also Tell’s Chapel on Lake Urn, the southern part of Lake Lucerne.

Legend relates that this is where the imprisoned Tell fled from a storm on the lake. You will come across Switzerland’s history in many places of the canton, for example on Switzerland’s path along Lake Urn, which is surrounded by beautiful scenery and which also invites surfers to spend their leisure time there.

Five millimetres of the about 35 kilometre long path stand for one inhabitant of Switzerland; inscribed marble blocks stand for the single cantons. In the canton of Uri, traditions and mythology have been conserved; there are still mystic and eerie things to be found.

picture source: pixelio.de / Hanspeter Bolliger

 

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