Saas Grund

Saas-Grund
Municipality
Coat of arms
Location of Saas-Grund
Saas-Grund Show map of Switzerland Saas-Grund Show map of Canton of Valais
Coordinates: 46°7′N 7°56′E / 46.117°N 7.933°E / 46.117; 7.933
Country	Switzerland
Canton	Valais
District	Visp
Government
• Mayor	Georg Anthamatten
Area
• Total	24.79 km2 (9.57 sq mi)
Elevation	1,559 m (5,115 ft)
Population  (31 December 2018)
• Total	1,000
• Density	40/km2 (100/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (Central European Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (Central European Summer Time)
Postal code(s)	3910
SFOS number	6291
Surrounded by	Saas Almagell, Saas Balen, Saas Fee, Simplon
Website	www.saas-grund.ch SFSO statistics

Saas-Grund is a municipality in Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It is east of Lenzspitze and Dom.

History

Saas-Grund was first mentioned in the year 1438. Back then, it was called grunderro.

On 3 April 1849, an avalanche hit the village. It destroyed a house that was used as a safe place during bad weather. Nineteen people died.

After this event, people built special rooms under the houses near the hill. These rooms were called Lawinengruft, which means avalanche vault. Each vault was about 5 meters long, 4 meters wide, and 2.5 meters high. They were used as shelters during avalanches.

In 1943, a magazine called Die Alpen, made by the Swiss Alpine Club, said that the vaults were last used in the winter of 1887–1888. At that time, only two vaults were still there. Many families shared one vault. If someone wanted to change the vault, they needed to get permission from all the other owners.

References

Other websites

Media related to Saas Grund at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website of Saas-Grund (in German)
• Saas-Grund on Saas-Fee tourism (in English)
• Saas-Grund in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.

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