Gsteigwiler

Geschichte

Gsteigwiler is a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.Gsteigwiler belongs to the Small Agglomeration Interlaken with 23,300 inhabitants (2014).HistoryGsteigwiler is first mentioned in 1333 as Wiler.The village first appears during the Middle Ages when it was owned by local nobles. In 1310 they donated the village to Interlaken Abbey. It remained in the hands of the Abbey until Bern accepted the Protestant Reformation and secularized the Abbey in 1528. Under Bernese rule it became part of the new bailiwick of Interlaken and remained part of the district of Interlaken until it was dissolved in 2009.The village remained isolated until the Wilderswil station of the Bernese Oberland Railway was built in 1890. Two years later a rack railway was built from the village to Breitlauenen in the Schynige Platte mountains.Today most of the population commutes to Interlaken for work, though there is some tourism in the village.GeographyGsteigwiler has an area of. Of this area, 1.58km2 or 22.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 4.57km2 or 65.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.31km2 or 4.4% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.1km2 or 1.4% is either rivers or lakes and 0.47km2 or 6.7% is unproductive land.