Saanen: The Church on the Rock and the Houses After the Fire

Saanen is the old market village of its valley, three minutes by train from Gstaad. A fire struck it in 1575, and its main street of wooden houses was rebuilt after it, largely in the late 16th to the 18th century. Above it, on a rock, stands the Mauritius church. Its paintings were whitewashed in 1604 and uncovered in 1927. When lightning set the tower on fire on 11 June 1940, only the paintings, pulpit, font and wooden columns were saved. Yehudi Menuhin's festival gave its first two concerts here in August 1957. You can find a farmhouse dated 1555 a few steps away, and end at the one village wine list with a Bernese bottle on it.

What to do there

5 things to do

1. 1 Walk Menuhin's 12 Boards, or Ride Three Minutes Adventure · Free

   Free, from the Gstaad chapel to the church on the rock.

   Start with a bell.

   Where: Kapälliplatz in Gstaad, by the St Niklaus chapel at Promenade 59. Its larger bell was cast in 1404 and has hung in that tower ever since. Its smaller sister was melted down in 1807 to recast the great bell of Saanen, and the 1940 fire destroyed that one.

   What: walk the Yehudi Menuhin Philosophers' Way along the Saane to Saanen village. It is 3.3 km, about 1 hour and easy, with 12 boards of Menuhin's quotations, and it ends at the Mauritius church. Count the boards on the way.

   How: free.

   Backup: in a hurry, take the MOB train. It runs hourly, leaves Gstaad at 36 minutes past the hour and takes 3 minutes. Trains back leave Saanen at 17 minutes past and take 4 minutes. PostAuto buses 180 and 183 take 7 minutes. From Saanen station the church is about 330 m, about 4 minutes on foot.

   Log Memory
2. 2 Find the Year High in the Nave History · Free

   Free: a date to find, and four things that survived a fire.

   Where: the Mauritius church, Chilchgasse 5, in its walled churchyard on the Moritzenbühl, a rock rising out of the meadow.

   What: first look up. The tower is Romanesque and massive, with a belfry and an octagonal spire. The nave behind it dates from 1444–1447. Inside, find the year high in the nave. It marks 1604, when the 15th-century wall paintings were whitewashed after the Bern council agreed to pay. They were uncovered in 1927. Then find the four things saved when lightning set the tower on fire on 11 June 1940: the paintings, the pulpit, the font and the wooden columns.

   How: free. The parish publishes no visiting hours. The church holds Sunday services and concerts, and the guided village tour takes in the church tower.

   Backup: if the door is locked, walk round the churchyard to St Anna's chapel of 1511 next door, and read the tower from outside.

   Log Memory
3. 3 Do the Fire Sum at Mittelgässli 25 History · Free

   Free: one dated house and the fire that came after it.

   Where: walk down from the church into the Unterdorf, a winding run of small log houses, to Mittelgässli 25.

   What: this farmhouse is dated 1555 by tree-ring samples. Someone lives there, so look from the lane. Work out the gap: it was standing twenty years before the fire of 1575 struck the village. The houses on the main street were rebuilt after that fire, largely in the late 16th to the 18th century. 1555 is also the year Bern took the Saanenland from the bankrupt Counts of Gruyère. Then go up to the main street and find the small square with the Menuhin memorial plaque, in front of a plastered half-timbered house of 1840.

   How: free.

   Backup: the Museum der Landschaft Saanen at Dorfstrasse 62 is in a late-medieval building badly damaged in the 1575 fire. It opens Thursday–Sunday 14:00–17:00 until 18 October 2026. Adults pay CHF 8, children from 6 pay CHF 6.

   Log Memory
4. 4 Take Your Photo of the Church on Its Rock Adventure · Free

   Free: your photo memory of Saanen.

   Where: below the Moritzenbühl, where the rock rises out of the meadow under the church.

   What: take your photo memory, with the tower and its octagonal spire above the rock and you in the frame. Menuhin's festival gave its first two concerts in this church on 4–6 August 1957, with Benjamin Britten at the piano. The festival still plays here, to 722 seats.

   How: free, any day in daylight.

   Backup: the Menuhin Center in the Salzhüsi chalet, Dorfstrasse 61, tells Menuhin's story. It opens Monday–Friday 8:00–12:00 and 13:30–17:30, Saturday 8:00–12:00, and is closed on Sunday.

   Log Memory
5. 5 Find the One Bernese Bottle on the Village Wine List Wine · Price: high · Optional

   Evening, Thursday to Monday: a reading task, and ordering is up to you.

   Saanen is not a wine village: the canton lists Spiez, not Saanen, among its Lake Thun wine communes.

   Where: 16 Art Bar Restaurant, Mittelgässli 16, in a former bell foundry.

   What: ask for the wine list and find the one wine from the canton of Bern. It is Domaine Frôté of La Neuveville, a Chardonnay 2022 at CHF 69 for 75 cl, and the list files it under Western Switzerland. La Neuveville lies on Lake Biel and passed to the canton of Bern in 1815. There is no Lake Thun or Spiez wine on the list.

   How: open all year, Thursday to Monday from 5 pm, so closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Book a table on +41 33 748 16 16. Ordering wine is your choice: the task is the list.

   Backup: for Lake Thun wine, go to Spiez. The growers' co-op there sells wine with a tasting from May to October, on Fridays 17–19 and Saturdays 11–14. Spiez is 1 h 22 from Gstaad by train, with one change at Zweisimmen.

   Log Memory

Insider tips

• Trains from Gstaad leave at 36 minutes past the hour and take 3 minutes; trains back leave Saanen at 17 minutes past.

• The church posts no visiting hours: a Sunday service, a concert or the guided village tour, which takes in the church tower, gets you inside.

• 16 Art opens Thursday to Monday from 5 pm and is closed Tuesday and Wednesday; book on +41 33 748 16 16.

• The 1555 on Mittelgässli 25 is also the year Bern took over the Saanenland from the bankrupt Counts of Gruyère.