Quinten

Quinten is an idyllic hamlet situated on the north shore of the Walensee in Switzerland. It belongs to the municipality of Quarten. As there are no roads leading to Quinten it is only reachable by boat or on foot.

Quinten consists of two main villages (Quinten and Au) and a large number of weekend houses that can be found throughout the villages. Au is the smaller of the two parts of Quinten and lies about one kilometer to the east of the main village. Quinten is an incredibly steep part of Switzerland and reaches from 419m above sea level (mean level of the Walensee) to 2193m above sea level. The horizontal distance between the main village and Schären (highest point) is about 2 kilometers. The rock in and around Quinten mainly consists of limestone which is responsible for the awe-inspiring near-vertical cliffs towering above Quinten. Thanks to the sheltered location at the foot of the Churfirsten mountain range, Quinten enjoys one of the mildest climates known north of the alps. This, of course, is an important factor in the local wine growing industry.

The name of the hamlet probably goes back to early medieval times and the administration of the bishopric of Chur. It follows the pattern of other villages along the Walensee which are called Terzen and Quarten (based on Latin ordinal numbers, tertius, quartus, quintus).

The hamlet of Quinten belonged to the Abbey in Pfäffers from the 9th century AD before it became part of the Austrian dominion of Windegg. After 1438 it became part of the Gaster.

The small local church was built in 1765 and is well worth a visit. It contains some interesting 20th-century frescos.

Quinten in early autumn

Quinten in winter, seen from the lake shore

Quinten seen from the Walensee

The ceiling fresco in the church

In 1807 the then well-known civil servant and politician Johann Melchior Kubli moved to Quinten and the stately house to the west of the village that is still known as the Kublihaus. Kubli is primarily remembered for his role in the witch hunt process against one Anna Göldi in 1782. The secret process which was outrageous even by the standards of 1782, ended in the execution of the victim. Kubli is believed to have passed on secret documents regarding this process to German journalists who proceeded to publish them and caused a public outcry that was heard throughout most of Europe at the time.

In the 19th and 20th century, Quinten did not change much, as the absence of road connections made industrialization and commerce very difficult. One major change was the construction of the walking track that connects Quinten and Au in the early 20th century which made the life of the children of Au much easier, as they no longer had to climb steeply up and then down into Quinten, but could use the lovely and flat new track on their way to school. In the early 1930s it looked like Quinten's fate was about to change, when the construction of a road from Weesen at the western end to Walenstadt at the eastern end of the Walensee was discussed. Two projects were discussed, one along the northern side of the lake through Quinten, the other along the southern side. In the end the road was built on the southern side and Quinten was left to stay the quiet place it still is. In the 1950s electrical mains power reached Quinten which led to the arrival of weekenders who built their houses in Quinten starting around the same time. In 1960 the excursion boat service took up its operation. The village school ceased to exist in 1972.

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Wikipedia