Lauterbrunnen is a village and municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. The municipality comprises the other villages of Wengen, Mürren, Gimmelwald, Stechelberg, and Isenfluh, as well as several other hamlets. The population of the village of Lauterbrunnen is less than that of Wengen, but larger than that of the others.
The municipality comprises the Lauterbrunnen Valley (German: Lauterbrunnental), located at the foot of the Bernese Alps. It is notably overlooked by the Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau and many other high peaks. The valley, drained by the White Lütschine, comprises the Soustal, the Sefinental and the upper Lauterbrunnen Valley with Untersteinberg. The valley includes several glaciers. Together with the adjacent valley of Grindelwald, the Lauterbrunnen Valley forms part of the Jungfrau Region of the Bernese Oberland, between Interlaken and the main crest of the Bernese Alps.
Similarly to Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen has become a major tourist destination. It is connected to Interlaken by the Bernese Oberland Railway and is the start of the Wengernalp Railway, leading to Kleine Scheidegg. The latter resort is the start of the Jungfrau Railway, the highest railway in Europe and a gateway to the Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area.
Lauterbrunnen was first mentioned in 1240 as "in claro fonte", a Romance language place name meaning "clear spring".[citation needed] By 1253, it was known to German speakers as Liuterbrunnon; the town had an alternate spelling of Luterbrunnen by 1268.[4] While the meaning of brunnen is undoubtedly spring or fountain, there is some dispute about the meaning of lauter. Some translate it as clear, clean or bright (which compares to the earlier Romance language meaning of the place mentioned above), while others translate it as "many" or "louder". A local explanation is that the name Lauterbrunnen means "many springs", using a modern meaning of the word lauter in German; however, this could be an example of a folk etymology.
The oldest trace of a settlement in the area is a single Roman coin which was discovered in the Blumental.
When the Lauterbrunnen Valley first appears in the historic record, during the 13th century, it was owned by the Freiherr of Wädenswil. In 1240 the Freiherr of Wädenswil sold the Sefinen Valley to Interlaken Monastery. Over the following century, the monastery and other local lords began to expand their power in the Lauterbrunnen and neighboring valleys. However, around 1300, the Lord of Turn began to settle his Walser-speaking people in the nearby Lötschen Valley and into the highlands of the Lauterbrunnen Valley. By 1346, the Walser villages of Lauterbrunnen, Gimmelwald, Mürren, Sichellauenen and Trachsellauenen all had village governments and a certain amount of independence from the monastery. Three years later, much of the Bernese Oberland unsuccessfully rose up against monastery. When the monastery suppressed the rebellion, the Walser villages bore the brunt of the monastery's wrath.
By the 15th century, the villages of the valley were part of the large parish of Gsteig bei Interlaken (now part of Gsteigwiler). Between 1487 and 1488, the villagers in Lauterbrunnen built a filial church of the parish. In 1506, the parish appointed a full-time priest for Lauterbrunnen. In 1528, the city of Bern adopted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation and began imposing it on the Bernese Oberland. Lauterbrunnen joined many other villages and the monastery in an unsuccessful rebellion against the new faith. After Bern imposed its will on the Oberland, they secularized the monastery and annexed all the monastery lands. Lauterbrunnen became the center of a new Reformed parish.