Goms Valley

Beyond Fiesch the Rhône Valley road leads through the thickly populated Goms valley, with its brown wooden houses and gleaming white churches, and after passing through Oberwald climbs up into the highest part of the valley, with the hotel complex of Gletsch, at the foot of the famous Rhône glacier.

Seen longitudinally the Goms, whose name is derived from "Conches" (hollow, basin) is a series of steps. The wide glaciated basin of the Upper Goms valley slopes gradually, in contrast to the valley steps of Gletsch and Fiesch. The numerous side valleys formed during the Pleistocene period with the rivers subsequently eroding deeper into the valleys. Above Geschinen the subsoil of the wide plain consists of glacial debris from the Rhône. A series of alluvial deposits left by the streams from the side valleys adjoin the wide plain between Geschinen and Münster. Evidence of temporary settlements date back to the Stone and Bronze Age. The first permanent settlement is thought to have been in the early Iron Age (from the fifth C.) with large clearings being left by the Alemannic tribes in the eighth C. During the Middle Ages settlement spread from the valley floor to individual farms and hamlets on the upper slopes. The region flourished economically and culturally during the 16th C. with the cattle trade, traffic using the pass and high political office bringing prosperity. Many elaborately decorated churches and artistic craftwork are the result of the religious Baroque revival in the 17th-18th C.

The traditional building, as elsewhere in the Inner Alps, is the Streuhof (barn). In contrast to the Mittelland, where living quarters, barn, threshing room and food store are all incorporated under one roof, the buildings here are single-purpose. The house is a high-walled block with a flat ridge roof. The oldest date from the Late Middle Ages and are colloquially referred to as "Heidenhäuser" ("Heathens' houses"). They are characterized by a ridge which holds together the grooved wall beams of the gable ends. In the 16th C. the wide "Renaissance houses" were built; in the 17th and 18th C. the multi-story "Baroque house". The traditional functional building is the grain store, a towering block supported by typical stone "Mäuserplatten" ("mouse dishes") built on top of a lower construction, which served different purposes and in the Upper Goms even consisted of two floors. There is also a smaller store, of similar design, which was used as a food store and meat drying room. Due to the importance of cattle-rearing the most commonly found functional building is the cow stall or "Gade", as it is known in the Goms. Above the lower floor is the hay loft.