St. Peter's Anglican Church Château-d'Oex · Serving the English-speaking Community Since 1899

History of English Churches in Switzerland – Belalp

In late August 1884 the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette reported that the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol “has gone to Bel-Alp, Switzerland”. He proposed, it added, “to be absent [a] month from his Diocese”. The bishop was Dr Ellicott, and three years later a London letter in the Bucks Herald called Belalp “his favourite resort”.1 In 1884, according to Paul Schniewind’s history of the Anglican chaplaincies, a new English chapel opened at Belalp. Schniewind records that Ellicott consecrated it in 1887 as the Church of the Good Shepherd. Consecration is the service in which a bishop sets a building apart for worship. From the chapel the view reaches the Aletsch glacier, the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc, and it was once described as the “most photographed church in Switzerland”.2

The English at the hotel

When the Oberländer Tagblatt looked back in 1941, it wrote that the English had been the first visitors to the Belalp, as they had been at Zermatt. They described and praised the landscape of the Aletsch, and in good years they came in such numbers that a chapel was even built for them beside the hotel.3 That was the Hotel Belalp, kept by the Klingele family, and by 1941 it had been in the same family’s hands for eighty years.4

John Tyndall knew the place well. G. R. de Beer records that Tyndall built himself a house on Alp Lusgen near Belalp.5 In August 1880 a paper in Vevey counted Bel-Alp among the Valais mountain resorts that were more popular than ever.6

Klingele’s chapel

There had been a chapel on the Belalp long before the English came, and Schniewind records that the first was built in 1696. He also records that Belalp was placed on the list of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the SPG, in 1866. It was a summer chaplaincy, a post for an English clergyman who served the visitors during the season. At first the services were held in the hotel, which Schniewind calls the Hotel Klingele.7 As more English visitors came, the Klingele family built a new chapel and gave the use of it to the SPG.8

World Heritage Experience Switzerland describes the Jungfrau-Aletsch World Heritage site, in which the Belalp lies, and it names the builder. The neo-Gothic chapel on Lüsgen, it says, was built in 1883–84 by the hotelier Gervas Klingele of the Hotel Belalp. It was built for the hotel’s mostly Anglican guests, who also helped to pay for it. For decades an English pastor held the Anglican service there, and the local people called the chapel the Tempel.9

We have not found a report of the consecration of 1887 in the British press, but the Bucks Herald’s London letter placed Ellicott at Belalp that August.10 He came often. Newman Hall wrote in his autobiography of the Bel-Alp Hotel, “Here I have often met, among other friends, Dr. Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester, with whom I have enjoyed many pleasant rambles”.11 Hall was a nonconformist, and at the chapel his welcome was less warm. De Beer records that the chaplain in charge asked him not to attend. In September 1887 the Christian World told what seems to be the same story. It reported that the Bishop of Gloucester and “the former chaplain”, both visitors at Bel-Alp, had “expressed to Mr. Newman Hall their sincere regret”.12

The last English summers

Schniewind records that the chapel was closed during the First World War and reopened in 1920. An SPG report of 1923 found it quiet: “Belalp is certainly far from the madding crowd. Seems to have been the rendez-vous of Bishops years ago.” In 1924 it was remarked that “many visitors” came to Belalp.13 After that the numbers fell. Schniewind writes that by 1932 the British visitors had dwindled so far that the SPG ended the summer chaplaincy before the Second World War.14 The World Heritage account puts the end in the war itself. The turmoil of the Second World War, it says, meant that no more Anglican services were held there. Neither account gives the year of the last Anglican service.15

The World Heritage account says that in 1941 the Bishop of Sion allowed the Catholic faithful to use the chapel for Mass. Schniewind dates the Catholic use from 13 July 1941.16 A few English still came after the war. Schniewind records that the hotel registered twenty English guests in 1948 and five in 1949. An SPG report of 1953 drew the conclusion: “Belalp is a wash-out as a centre for British tourists, and therefore the raison d’être for the chaplaincy has disappeared.”17 In 1982, Schniewind records, the Klingele family gave the chapel to the Roman Catholic parish of Naters, the Pfarrei Naters.18

We would like to know more about the chaplains who served at Belalp, about the consecration of 1887, and about the last Anglican summer before the war. If you can help, please write to us at info(a)stpeters.ch. The English also came first to Zermatt, and its church is described on its own page. How the English came to the Alps at all is told in The English experience of the Alps. The other English churches are described in our guide to the English churches in Switzerland.

  1. Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 29 August 1884, p. 3; “London Letter”, Bucks Herald, 20 August 1887, p. 8: “The Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol left Gloucester on Tuesday for his favourite resort, Belalp, in Switzerland; and his lordship makes the tenth Anglican Bishop now on the Continent.” Both in the British Newspaper Archive; we have seen them only as search extracts. A book advertisement, seen as a search extract on archive.org, prints his style as “C. J. Ellicoit [Ellicott], D.D. Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol.” ↩

  2. Paul W. Schniewind, Anglicans in Switzerland (Berne, 1992), p. 108. Schniewind gives the phrase “most photographed church in Switzerland” on the authority of a “Dixon Report”, which we have not seen. He does not say who first made the claim. ↩

  3. “Alpine und gastfreundliche Tradition.”, Oberländer Tagblatt, 21 August 1941 (e-newspaperarchives.ch OTB19410821-01.2.32.4.6), OCR text: “Wie in Zermatt, waren auch auf der Belalp die Engländer die ersten am Werk, und sie beschrieben und lobten die großartige Landschaft im Forschungs- und Gletschergebiet des Aletsch. In guten Jahren kamen sie so zahlreich, dass für sie beim Hotel gar eine Kapelle erbaut wurde”. The article does not name the builder. ↩

  4. Oberländer Tagblatt, 21 August 1941: the hotel, “seit 80 Jahren im Besitz der gleichen Familie”, which the passage does not name. A hotel list in How to See Switzerland gives “BELALP Hotel Belalp Fam. K. Klingele”; we have not recorded the date of that edition. An extract from the Stamp-Collector’s Magazine describes “an enterprising German, from AVurtemberg [Wurtemberg], Klingele by name”, who “opened a small inn, in 1860”; the extract does not itself name the place. We have seen both books only as search extracts on archive.org. ↩

  5. G. R. de Beer, Travellers in Switzerland (1949), Tyndall entry: “In this year Tyndall built himself a house on Alp Lusgen near Belalp”. The year of the entry is not in the extract we have seen. ↩

  6. Nouvelle Feuille d’avis des districts de Vevey, Aigle …, 20 August 1880, p. 5 (Scriptorium item 248248), OCR text: “Les stations alpestres du Valais : Morgins, Champéry, Loëche, Bel-Alp, Zermatt, le Glacier du Rhône, sont plus en vogue que jamais.” ↩

  7. Schniewind, p. 108, citing the SPG’s file on Belalp. H. P. Thompson’s history of the SPG, Into All Lands (1951), names Belalp among the favourite resorts of the Society’s summer visitors: “visitors at their favourite resorts, Belalp, Pontresina, or Cadenabbia”. It gives no year. We have seen it only as a search extract. ↩

  8. Schniewind, p. 108. The Oberländer Tagblatt of 1941 (note 3) agrees that the chapel was built at the hotel because the English came in numbers. ↩

  9. “Die neugotische Kapelle auf Lüsgen”, World Heritage Experience Switzerland (ourheritage.ch, point of interest 315), read on the website on 23 September 2026: “Die neugotische Kapelle auf Lüsgen wurde in den Jahren 1883 / 1884 vom Hotelier (Hotel Belalp) Gervas Klingele für die mehrheitlich anglikanischen Gäste des Hotels erbaut, welche die Errichtung auch finanziell unterstützten. Jahrzehntelang hielt ein englischer Pastor in der Kapelle, von den Einheimischen auch Tempel genannt, den anglikanischen Gottesdienst ab”. The translations are ours. Among the sources we have, the forename Gervas appears only here. De Beer (note 5) places Tyndall’s house on “Alp Lusgen near Belalp”. ↩

  10. Schniewind, p. 108. In 1887 Ellicott’s see was Gloucester and Bristol; Schniewind calls him “the Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Revd Dr Ellicott”. A search of the British Newspaper Archive for “belalp consecrated” from June to December 1887 found only an advertisement. A wider search for 1884–1888 returned 77 results; the first page of them has no report of a consecration at Belalp. For the Bucks Herald, see note 1. The same bishop consecrated Christ Church on the Eggishorn in August 1885 (Morning Post, 27 August 1885, p. 2; John Bull, 29 August 1885, p. 13, both seen as search extracts). That report concerns the Eggishorn, not Belalp. A Thomas Cook guide of 1912 mentions “The little Chapel of the Good Shepherd”, which “contains some fine frescoes”; the extract we have seen does not itself name Belalp (The Traveller’s Handbook for Switzerland, 1912). ↩

  11. Newman Hall: an autobiography (1898), seen as a search extract on archive.org: “but safe winding path takes you to the Bel-Alp Hotel. Here I have often met, among other friends, Dr. Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester, with whom I have enjoyed many pleasant rambles”. ↩

  12. De Beer, Hall entry: “The chaplain in charge requested Hall as a non-conformist not to attend”; the year is not in the extract. “Exclusiveness of ‘Catholicity’“, Christian World, 15 September 1887, p. 2 (British Newspaper Archive), seen only as a search extract. That it describes the same incident as de Beer is likely but not proved. The extract does not name the chaplain. ↩

  13. Schniewind, p. 108, quoting the SPG’s file on Belalp for 1923 and 1924. ↩

  14. Schniewind, p. 108. He dates the fall in visitors, which had “gradually dwindled”, to 1932, and the end of the chaplaincy only to “prior to World War II”. An earlier version of this page gave 1932 as the year the chaplaincy ended, which is more than Schniewind says. He also quotes an SPG report of 1953 on the chaplaincy (note 17), which suggests that Belalp was still on the Society’s books after the war. ↩

  15. World Heritage Experience Switzerland (note 9): “Die Wirren des Zweiten Weltkriegs führten dazu, dass in der neugotischen Kapelle keine anglikanischen Gottesdienste mehr abgehalten wurden.” ↩

  16. World Heritage Experience Switzerland (note 9): “1941 gestattete der Bischof von Sitten den Gläubigen, die Kapelle für die katholische Messe zu benutzen”. Schniewind, p. 108. The Oberländer Tagblatt of 21 August 1941 (note 3) says nothing about the Catholic use. ↩

  17. Schniewind, p. 108, quoting the SPG’s file on Belalp. In his book the sentence about 1982 is printed inside this quotation; we read it as his own statement (note 18). ↩

  18. Schniewind, p. 108, citing a letter from H. Eggel of Naters, 14 January 1992. We have not checked the chapel’s ownership or use since his book appeared in 1992. ↩

Questions answered

Who built the English chapel on the Belalp?
The family who kept the Hotel Belalp. Paul Schniewind's history records that the Klingele family built the chapel because more English visitors were coming, and gave the use of it to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. World Heritage Experience Switzerland names the builder as the hotelier Gervas Klingele. It says that the chapel was built in 1883–84 for the hotel's mostly Anglican guests, who also helped to pay for it.
When was the chapel at Belalp opened and consecrated?
Paul Schniewind records that the chapel opened in 1884 and was consecrated in 1887 by Dr Ellicott, as the Church of the Good Shepherd. Ellicott was then Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. We have not found a report of the consecration in the British press, but a London letter placed the bishop at Belalp in August 1887. Schniewind also records that Belalp had been on the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel's list since 1866, and that services were held at first in the hotel.
Was the Belalp chapel really the most photographed church in Switzerland?
It was described as such. Paul Schniewind records that the chapel's site is unique, with a panorama that reaches the Aletsch glacier, the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc, and that it was called the "most photographed church in Switzerland". He does not say who first made the claim.
When did Anglican worship at Belalp end?
Before or during the Second World War. Paul Schniewind records that by 1932 the number of British visitors had dwindled, and that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel ended the summer chaplaincy before the war. World Heritage Experience Switzerland says that the turmoil of the war meant no more Anglican services were held. Neither gives the year of the last service. In 1941 the Bishop of Sion allowed Catholics to use the chapel for Mass, and Schniewind dates that use from 13 July 1941.
Who owns the Belalp chapel now?
Paul Schniewind records that in 1982 the Klingele family gave the chapel to the Roman Catholic parish of Naters. We have not checked its ownership or use since his book appeared in 1992.