Randa, Switzerland

Town center with the church of Saint Sebastian

Randa is a municipality in the district of Visp in the German-speaking part of the canton of Valais in Switzerland.

Geography

Randa is on the Matter Vispa between Visp and Zermatt, 9 km away and is the third-highest municipality in the Matter. The lowest point of the municipality lies at 1,270 m above sea level. M., on the municipal boundary to St. Niklaus. The highest point is the summit of the cathedral with 4,545 m above sea level. M. The area boasts many hamlets.

History

Randa was established in 1290th first mentioned it was 1305. Randa means as much as edge border. Until 1552 Randa was, together with the municipality of Naters Tasch. In 1590 the church bylaws were built. The baroque church from 1717 in 1932 was provided by the muralist J. salt encoder with wall paintings. The high altar was created in 1735 by the famous sculptor Anton Sigristen from Glis.

The small mountain village named Randa was hit in the past centuries repeatedly by natural disasters, 1636, 1720, 1737 and 1819.

Landslide of Randa

The worst disaster was the Randa rockslide in 1991. Early morning of April 18 huge boulders tumbled when Grossgufer ( walliser-dt. = accumulation of large boulders ) into the valley. On May 9, three weeks later, the mountain slid further and the boulders of total about 33 million cubic meters (compared to the volume of the Great Pyramid: 2.5 million m³) buried large parts of the hamlet of Lerch with 33 farm buildings and cottages and seven horses and 35 sheep, the road linking Zermatt and the route of the Brig -Visp- Zermatt -Bahn. The inches high layer of dust covered the valley. People not died.

The current flowing through the valley Matter Vispa was dammed by the debris and threatened with their masses of water the place. The water was then pumped with an electric pump over the obstacle. After prolonged rainfall in the village stream spilled with its entrained boulders the pumps, which were then. The low-lying districts Randa were flooded on 16 June 1991.

Policy

Mayor Leo is Jörger (as of 2010 ).

Attractions

Church

Patron saint of the parish of Randa is the holy Sebastian. His feast day, January 20, is local holiday.

Sports

The football club FC Randa was founded in 1986. The aim was to participate in the regional mountain village Championship ( BDM ), which has been in existence since 1984. The FC Randa does not play in one of the official leagues of the Swiss Football Association.

In and around Randa Furthermore, there are numerous rock climbing walls, which both are very well suited to the top rope and lead climbing as well as bouldering. In addition, there is the possibility of mountaineering and climbing added to the mountains surrounding the town. These vary in difficulty and height and are therefore suitable for both beginners and professionals.

Trivia

The asteroid ( 3928 ) Randa was named by the astronomer Paul Wild by the community.