Saas-Fee () is the main village in the Saastal, or the Saas Valley, and is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. The village is situated on a high mountain plateau at 1,800 meters (5,900 feet), surrounded by a total of 13 peaks above 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) which is the highest concentration in the Alps, giving the village the nickname the Pearl of the Alps. It is a classic ski resort characterised by well-preserved Swiss wood architecture and a car-free city centre. The villages in its neighbourhood are Saas-Almagell, Saas-Grund and Saas-Balen.
Overview
thumb|left|Traditional [[raccard granaries in Saas-Fee]]
thumb|left|Saas-Fee as seen from the bottom of the slopes
Its location close to the glaciers of the Dom and the Allalinhorn provides winter sport opportunities throughout the year, and neighbouring peaks such as the Weissmies, the Nadelhorn and the Lenzspitze are popular climbs in the summer season. The community is considered to be a very attractive winter sport destination in the Swiss Alps. Typical activities include skiing, snowboarding, snowshoe trekking, canyon climbing and ice climbing.
Saas-Fee offers 22 lifts, including 3 cable cars, 1 funicular railway (Metro Alpin), 5 gondolas (1 dedicated to walkers), 2 chairlifts, the remainder being surface lifts (draglifts). The ski run has a vertical drop of 1,800 m (5,906 ft), a top elevation of 3,600 m (11,811 ft) and covers ( beginner, intermediate, advanced). Other activities include paragliding, hang gliding, and tobogganing.
Saas-Fee can be reached by car or bus – postal buses run during much of the day half-hourly from Brig and Visp, though none provides a service beyond the bus terminal through the length of the town during the winter. No cars are allowed to enter the city (they have to be parked in special car parks outside); only small electric vehicles operate on the streets between the hotels and ski area. The decision to exclude most motor vehicles was made by the village at the time of the construction of the road from Saas Grund in 1951 in order to eliminate air pollution.
The resort offers many culture, sports, and off-slope activities, including classical music, a sports and leisure complex, restaurants, and nightclubs. The resort features the highest underground funicular railway in the world up to the skiing area and the highest revolving restaurant in the world at . The touristic slogan of Saas-Fee is "Die Perle der Alpen" (The Pearl of the Alps) as it is surrounded by a total of 13 peaks above , the most in the Alps. A campus of the European Graduate School is located in Saas-Fee.
History
thumb|Aerial view (1964)
Saas-Fee is first mentioned in 1304 as vee. The municipality was formerly known by its French name Fée (); however, that name is no longer used.
Demographics
thumb|Saas-Fee
thumb|City museum of Saas-Fee
Saas-Fee has a population () of . , 28.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 3.4%. It has changed at a rate of 0.5% due to migration and at a rate of 6.3% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks German (1,243 or 85.5%) as their first language.
The German dialect spoken is called Walser German and is partly unintelligible to speakers of Standard German.
Serbo-Croatian is the second most common (98 or 6.7%) and Portuguese is the third (47 or 3.2%). There are 16 people who speak French, 12 people who speak Italian and 2 people who speak Romansh.
, there were 625 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household. , the construction rate of new housing units was 12.2 new units per 1000 residents.
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Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 64.08% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (23.78%), the SVP (7.06%) and the SP (3.2%). In the federal election, a total of 678 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 67.1%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 703 votes were cast, of which 26 or about 3.7% were invalid. The voter participation was 69.5%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 666 votes were cast, of which 30 or about 4.5% were invalid. The voter participation was 66.3%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
thumb|Electric vehicle on Obere Dorfstraße, the main street in Saas-Fee
, Saas-Fee had an unemployment rate of 3.3%. , there were 5 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 2 businesses involved in this sector. 131 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 19 businesses in this sector. 1,169 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 182 businesses in this sector.
, there were 227 workers who commuted into the municipality and 65 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 3.5 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. Of the working population, 6.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 4.3% used a private car. During that school year, there 2 kindergarten classes (KG1 or KG2) and 32 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school. In Saas-Fee, there were a total of 8 classes and 137 students in the primary school. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling (orientation classes), followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. All the lower and upper secondary students from Saas-Fee attend their school in a neighboring municipality.
, there were 73 students from Saas-Fee who attended schools outside the municipality.. The cable car that they get into to go up the mountain is labelled with the name "Saas-Fee" in the typical Saas-Fee font. This appears to be an artistic device as the cable car, now replaced by a more modern version, runs between the edge of Saas-Fee and Felskinn which is considerably above the normal height for residential buildings. In 2024, the surviving cast and crew from the recording of the Last Christmas music video returned to the village for the unveiling of a pillar commemorating the song's 40th anniversary.
Notable people
- Arnold Andenmatten (1922–2018, skier)
- Alexander Burgener (1845–1910, mountain guide)
- Carl Zuckmayer (1896–1977, German writer, interred in Saas Fee)
- Matthias Zurbriggen (1856–1917, alpinist)
- Frederik Kalbermatten (b. 1981, snowboarder)
See also
- Brig-Visp-Zermatt railway
- List of ski areas and resorts in Switzerland