Schruns

Schruns lies in the middle of the Montafon, the long valley of the Ill river in the south of Vorarlberg, where the broad valley floor narrows between the Rätikon mountains to the west and the Silvretta to the east. At about 690 metres, it is low enough for orchards and meadows, while the surrounding mountains rise to over 2,600 metres. About 3,700 people live in the town, and the Montafon as a whole has about 16,000, with Tschagguns, Gaschurn and St. Gallenkirch the neighbouring communities.

The Montafon is a Rhaeto-Romanic and Walser valley: the name probably derives from an old Romance word, and from the fourteenth century Walser settlers from Valais moved into the high side valleys. Mining was an early industry, with iron and silver worked in the mountains, and farming, forestry and, later, tourism became the main livelihoods. Schruns was one of the first places in Vorarlberg to attract summer and winter visitors, in the late nineteenth century.

Among the guests, Ernest Hemingway is the most famous. He came to Schruns in December 1925 with his wife Hadley and stayed in the Hotel Taube through the winter of 1925 to 1926, and he later wrote about the ski holiday in A Moveable Feast, remembering Schruns as a place of cheap lodgings, good skiing and happy evenings. The hotel is still in business, and a commemorative marker is on the building. He wrote parts of The Sun Also Rises while in Schruns.

The historic centre has a pedestrian-friendly main street with the Schrunster parish church of St. Jodok, a church with a tall tower, and several old houses. The Montafon Heritage Museum, the Montafoner Heimatmuseum, in an old building, is among the oldest and largest regional museums in the Alps, with displays on the valley's history, farming, crafts and mining, and it is a good introduction. Above the village, Schloss Gauenstein, a castle with medieval roots (a hotel called Vitalquelle-Gauenstein stands nearby), and a small chapel nearby recall the lords of the valley. Older tourist sources call the site a monastery or hermitage, but the building is a castle.

The mountains are the real attraction. In winter, the Silvretta Montafon ski area, one of the largest in Vorarlberg, with around 140 kilometres of pistes, is reached by a gondola from Schruns to the Hochjoch, and the slopes extend over to Kristberg and the Golm. In summer, cable cars carry walkers to the Hochjoch and the Golm, and marked trails lead to alpine pastures and huts. The Zimba, a pyramid-shaped peak of 2,643 metres, is regarded as the local Matterhorn, and the Sulzfluh, a limestone peak on the Swiss border, has karst formations and caves. The long-distance Montafon trail links the valley's villages, and the Montafoner Weg is a network of marked hiking paths with Schruns as a base.

Other attractions include a thermal and leisure pool in the valley, a Montafon steam railway, the Montafonerbahn, that runs from Bludenz to Schruns, and the Alpine Nature Park of the nearby Rätikon.

Food is Vorarlberg and Montafon cooking: Montafoner Sura Kees, a sour cheese, Käsknöpfle, Riebel, Funkaküachle, a sweet fried pastry, and Montafon mountain cheese, with strudel and Kaiserschmarrn as desserts.

The best time to visit is from December to April for skiing and from June to October for walking. Spring is quiet.

Getting there is easy. Schruns has a railway station at the end of the Montafonerbahn from Bludenz, with trains every half hour in about 25 minutes, and Bludenz has links to Zurich, Innsbruck and Vienna. By car, the A14 motorway leads to Bludenz, from where the valley road reaches Schruns in about 20 minutes. Zurich is about two and a half hours away, Innsbruck about two.