Interlaken

Interlaken, a Swiss town (1864 ft.) in the canton of Berne, situated on the flat plain (Bödeli) between the lakes of Brienz (E.) and of Thun (W.), and connected by steamer, as well as by railway (17½ m.) with the town of Thun. It is built on the left bank of the Aar, and grew up around the religious house of Austin Canons, founded about 1130 and suppressed in 1528. In the surviving buildings of the convent religious services (Anglican, Scottish Presbyterian and French Protestant) are now held, while the more modern castle is occupied by offices of the Cantonal Government. The fine and well-shaded avenue called the Höheweg runs through the main portion of the town, and is lined on the north side by a succession of huge hotels and the large Kursaal. Interlaken is much frequented in summer, partly because of the glorious view of the Jungfrau (13,669 ft.) which it commands to the south, and partly because it is the best starting-point for many excursions, as to Schynige Platte, Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald. The lines serving these places all start from the eastern railway station (that from Thun reaches the western or main railway station), whence steamers depart for the Giessbach Falls, Brienz and Meiringen, on the way to Lucerne or to the Grimsel Pass. In 1900 the population of Interlaken was 2962 (mainly Protestant and German-speaking). Opposite Interlaken, and on the right bank of the Aar is Unterseen (in 1900, 2607 inhabitants), which was built in 1280 by Berthold von Eschenbach.

See Fontes rerum Bernensium (original documents up to 1366) (8 vols., Berne, 1883-1903); Die Regesten des Klosters zu Interlaken (Coire, 1849); E. Tatarinoff, Die Entwickelung der Probstei Interlaken im XIII. Jahrhundert (Schaffhausen, 1892).

(W. A. B. C.)

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