On one of those rare sunny days, we set off to explore and visit the small village by the lake called Rasperswil – Jona, one of the best Switzerland attractions.
Thanks to my super cool host family, I had the chance to visit a village I would have probably missed. This place is really picturesque. Not only the village is drop dead gorgeous, but there’s an amazing castle with breathtaking views over the snowy mountains bellow.
We took advantage of one of those rare super sunny winter days around Zurich to explore Rasperswil – Jona-
Raperswill Jona is a municipality of 26.350 inhabitants (Dec. 2012) in the Canton of St. Gallen. It’s located south of the lake Zurich and part of the See Gaster district.
In January of 2007, the municipalities of Rapeswill and Jona emerged together. There has been an ancient pillgrimage place for centuries, thanks to an old wooden bridge that crossed the lake. Later on the wooden bridge was replaced by a dam, but in 2001 a new wooden footbridge was open alongside the first 840 meters of the crossing, in the exact same spot the ancient one.
I’ve been living with my Swiss host family for a few weeks now and I feel really happy and integrated in the family’s daily life. As I mention in the previous post , this cultural exchange is the best option for the ones who really want more than the tourist feel of a place.
I often travel because of the people, to learn new cultures, maybe a new language, new vegetarian foods, etc. I was very lucky this time around in Zurich. I absolutely love my host family and even though I’m basically hibernating this winter here and having strong winter blues issues with the lack of sunshine, I have plenty of free time to put my energy into different projects and explore around.
After my slight disappointment with Zurich in general, and being more interested in picturesque villages than regular cities, Fjola, my host offered to take me to this precious gem. If it was this beautiful during a cold winter day, I can’t imagine how pleasant it must be during the spring or summer time, when everything turns green.
From the top of the castle, now converted into the Polish museum, you have some of the most stunning views of both the lake, the village and the mountains covered in snow.
Settlements in the region of Rapperswil date back at least 5000 years. Atop the Lindenhof hill overlooking a former small village (Endingen), Raperswill castle was built around 1220 by the Counts of Rapeswill and is first mentioned in 1229.
The town was founded when the nobility of Rapperswil. The town was soon acquired by the Habsburg family who, in 1358/60, built the wooden bridge across the upper Lake Zürich. Later, the town bought itself free, and ending Old Zurich war made an alliance with the Swiss confederation. Thanks to its strategic location along important infrastructure the town grew rich because of flourishing trade. *
The town center host most of the attractions, with medieval traditional houses and buildings. The village is small enough that you can walk your away around in a couple of hours. Most of it’s attractions, besides the old castle are the old streets, the paintings on the walls of the houses and buildings, which explain certain historical events of the place and a few important churches.
And guess what?? Raperswill is a CAR-FREE medieval town, how cool is that?
This is a village where pedestrians and bikes rule and where the air and the waters which give life to many fountains around are really pure.
COOL EVENTS IN RAPESWILL:
*Wikipedia
Featured photo: Bernd Nies – www.nies.ch