Altdorf, capital of the canton of Uri, a little town with a long and eventful history, lies 3km/2mi south of the outflow of the Reuss into Lake Uri in a wide plain at the mouth of the Schächen valley; it is the starting-point of the road over the Klausen pass. It is here that William Tell is supposed to have shot at the apple on his son's head. The parish is believed to have been established in the 10th C., although the first appearance of Altdorf in the records is only in 1223. After the struggle to shake off Habsburg rule the place acquired political and economic importance as capital of the territory of Uri, which until 1439 was self-governing in direct subordination to the Emperor.
In front of the Altdorf Rathaus (Town Hall, 1805-08) and a medieval tower house is the Tell Monument (by Richard Kissling, 1895). To the east is the Tell theater (1925), in which Schiller's "Wilhelm Tell" is performed by Altdorf townspeople.
The Historical Museum, founded in 1892, contains a cultural collection from the Canton of Uri (wooden sculpture, altars, embroidery from the 15th-18th C., costumes).
Of interest in Altdorf are the parish church of St Martin (rebuilt 1801- 10), the Uri Historical Museum (founded 1892), the Suvorov house and the Capuchin friary.
From Altdorf a road runs via Seedorf (alt. 437 m/1,434ft) at the southwest tip of Lake Uri. At the end of the village, directly on the lake, stands the pinnacled Schloss a Pro, which was built for the Knight Jacob (1556-60) of the same name. Nowadays the castle houses the Uri Mineral Museum (slide shows).
Address: Schloss A Pro, Gemeindekanzlei, CH-6462 Seedorf, Switzerland
From Isleten to the delightfully situated village of Isenthal (10k m/6mi: alt. 778 m/2,553ft; pop. 600), the starting point for the ascent of the Urirostock (2,932 m/9,620ft; six-seven hours, with guide; cableways).
14km/9mi south of Isenthal, by way of Erstfeld (alt. 475 m/1,558ft: station on the St Gotthard line), is Amsteg (552 m/1,811ft), a beautifully situated village and summer holiday resort at the mouth of the Maderanertal, here spanned by a 53 m/174ft-high viaduct carrying the St Gotthard railroad; cableway (1,440 m/4,725ft long: seven minutes) up the Arniberg (1,392 m/4,567ft).
1.5km/1mi south of Altdorf, on the left bank of the Reuss, is Attinghausen (alt. 469 m/1,539ft; pop. 1,200), with the remains of a castle in which Freiherr von Attinghausen, who features in Schiller's play, died in 1321.
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Maderanertal
