report
The “Brienzer Slide” has been rumbling in Switzerland for a long time. But now everything has to happen quickly – the village of Brienz has to be cleared by 6 p.m. today. Rock masses on the mountain above are in danger of falling.
Clouds of fog hang on the gray rocky slope above Brienz. Again and again it rumbles when stones start rolling upstairs. A few really big chunks are already lying on the meadow opposite the empty old school building on the outskirts of the village. Franziska Bötschi lives just a few meters away: “They always come down. And about eight years ago the front part slipped down, but only one or two stones rolled onto the street and that’s it. The trees there are broken and some have been knocked down are from the stones. There used to be a small forest, everything is gone.”
Franziska will soon be 70, she was born in Brienz, has always lived under and with the rumbling mountain: “We’re used to it, it doesn’t bother us. Here and there I’ve dreamed that the stones are coming into the house, but I have then forget it again because we grew up here and always hear that.”
“Large landslide cannot be completely ruled out”
But now, high up, the movement of two million cubic meters of rock has accelerated so much that the village is being evacuated. All 85 residents must have moved out by 6 p.m. this Friday. The geologist Stefan Scheider heads the early warning service: “The most likely thing is that there will be several smaller to larger rockfalls from several tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of cubic meters,” he says. “Slightly less likely, but also not impossible, is a large debris flow like viscous honey, which would then have great destructive power, and the last thing that we cannot completely rule out is the great landslide.”
Imminent rock fall: The mountain village of Brienz must be evacuated by 6 p.m. today.
Renato Liesch from Brienz says after geologists, community representatives and civil protection in the gymnasium of the neighboring village have informed about the evacuation: “It was like knocking a couple around the ears. Like a low blow. In the subconscious you know that it’s coming, you want it don’t believe it, but it’s coming.” He’s packing now. Reluctantly, but he must. “My mother told me she’s not afraid of the stones, she’s afraid of the uncertainty. How long will we be gone? And she doesn’t want to leave the house, which also hurts me,” Liesch continued.
The village church tower has been crooked for a long time
The tower of the village church of St. Calixtus has been a little crooked for many years – also a result of the “Brienzer Slide”. And in the church too, boxes are now being packed as quickly as possible: not only people and animals have to be brought to safety, but also the late Gothic winged altar – a masterpiece from the early 16th century.
Karolina Soppa, a professor at Bern University of the Arts, and a team are carefully dismantling the altar and packing individual parts, sculptures and reliefs for evacuation. “It takes an incredible amount of effort to bring everything down without causing any damage, because it really is a national cultural asset and extremely valuable. That’s why: We would have liked to have done it even more slowly. Consolidated in an emergency. We’re only doing the bare minimum now.”
Monica Bill lives right next to the church in the former vicarage. She only moved here three years ago, said the 70-year-old. Now she is standing at the bus stop with two large bags and a bulging backpack. “I was so happy in this house and I knew the risk, but I was fine with that.”
It has been rumbling for a long time, now a large rockfall could threaten the mountain village of Brienz.
Return to the village unclear
Now Monica is moving to the neighboring village to her boyfriend. When she can return to Brienz, if she can return at all, is uncertain. That ultimately decides the rumbling mountain. “Nature does what it wants,” she says as we board the bus. “You just take it as it comes and you can’t fall any lower than into God’s hands, can you?”