Andermatt hotels collection

Above Andermatt, a triangle of conifers holds the slope alone, in a valley that has almost no trees left: it was placed under ban in the Middle Ages to stop the avalanches, and it has done the job ever since. The village huddles below, its timber houses browned by the sun, and the old Romanesque church of St Columban stands a little apart on its slope. Downstream, the Reuss plunges into the Schöllenen, a granite gorge that the Devil's Bridge spans above the spray. Upstream, the Oberalp road closes for the whole winter; the train keeps climbing to the pass, sheltered by its galleries.