Saanen Old Village and Mauritius Church

Saanen is the old market village three minutes by train from Gstaad, and the federal inventory of protected Swiss townscapes lists it. Its main street is a dense row of gable-fronted wooden houses, mostly rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1575. Above it stands the Mauritius church, where Yehudi Menuhin's festival gave its first concerts in August 1957 and still plays to 722 seats. It is stop 6 of the Gstaad trail.

Start at the church. Its wall paintings from the second half of the 15th century were whitewashed in 1604 and uncovered in 1927, and survived the lightning fire of 11 June 1940 that destroyed the bells. Below stands St Anna's chapel of 1511. Walk down into the Unterdorf, where the farmhouse at Mittelgässli 25 is dated 1555 by tree-ring dating, then along the main street to the small square with Menuhin's memorial. The guided tour takes 1–1.5 hours.

Go between mid-July and early September to hear a concert in the church: the 71st Menuhin Festival is announced for 16 July to 4 September 2027. The village museum opens Thursday to Sunday afternoons in a summer and a winter season and closes between them; in 2026 it closed from 13 April to 29 May. The parish publishes no visiting hours for the church; Sunday services and concerts open it.

Walking the public village streets costs nothing, and the centre is closed to through traffic. The Museum der Landschaft Saanen charges adults CHF 8 and children from 6 CHF 6. The Menuhin Center at Dorfstrasse 61 opens Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings; adults pay Fr. 7, under-18s nothing. Guided village tours of 1–1.5 hours include the church tower, in English, German or French, for up to 10 people per guide; check the price when booking. The church has step-free access.

From Gstaad, the MOB train towards Montreux leaves hourly at 36 minutes past and reaches Saanen in 3 minutes. PostAuto buses 180 and 183 take 7 minutes. From Saanen station the church is about 330 m away, a walk of about 4 minutes. On foot from Gstaad station it is about 3.1 km, roughly 40 minutes. Drivers park in the garage under the village, because a bollard keeps through traffic out of the centre.

Saanen's old village is the historic market centre of the Saanenland in the canton of Bern, three minutes by train from Gstaad, with the Mauritius church at Chilchgasse 5 on the rock above it. The church was first mentioned in 1228, and its nave dates from 1444–1447. Most houses along the main street date from the late 16th to the 18th century, after the fire of 1575. More places nearby: Bernese Oberland.

Saanen was the market and parish centre of the Saanenland, with weekly and yearly markets. A devastating fire struck the village in 1575, and the street of wooden houses that stands today was rebuilt after it, with a prison tower of 1596 and a carved and painted house of 1659 by master builder Hans Tüller. The Montreux–Oberland railway arrived in 1905 and brought the tourists who made Gstaad internationally known.

The wine stop is in the old village itself. 16 Art Bar Restaurant at Mittelgässli 16, a former bell foundry listed in the Michelin Guide, opens Thursday to Monday from 5 pm; book on +41 33 748 16 16. Its summer 2026 list is mostly Swiss, from Valais, Western Switzerland, Ticino and Graubünden. The one wine from the canton of Bern is a Chardonnay from Domaine Frôté in La Neuveville, on Lake Biel.