Rhein-Reuss-Rhône route: Gletsch - Münster

The Rotten (the Rhone) is our constant companion from Gletsch to St. Maurice. The hiking trail sneaks alongside the road and railway through the valley gorge to Oberwald during the first one and a half hours of walking. Still above the first village, we encounter the pilgrim and travel saint in the Nikolaus chapel. In Oberwald we find a Holy Cross church. The next 20 km in the dreamily beautiful U-shaped valley have almost no gradient. From every sun-browned wooden house village, a dazzling white church tower rises, with green forests in the background. The Rottenweg leads us to Geschinen and over a magnificent meadow path we reach Münster (Monasterium, former monastery). In the parish church of the former large parish, one of the most beautiful Gothic altars in Switzerland awaits us, as does the adjoining parish museum, the quaint little Peterskirche and the remarkably Baroque-appointed Antonius chapel on the Biel.