When you set out to encounter the Giessbach Falls, you're not just entering a natural spectacle, but a stage for myths, legends, and forgotten times. In 14 wild cascades, the water plunges over 500 meters from the Faulhorn high valley, as if making a dramatic declaration of love to the earth itself. And as spray and thunder fill the valley, you inevitably prick up your ears – for if you listen closely, you'll hear the voices of ancient spirits in the throbbing waters.
A path through history and spray
As early as the 19th century, hikers ventured onto a specially constructed path that leads beneath the roaring water. This path, narrow as an idea and bold as a dream, makes it possible to get very close to falling into the void – without actually falling. The 14 steps bear the names of Bernese heroes, as if the water wanted to remind us that even the lives of the brave are fleeting, while the river flows forever.
It is said that on moonlit nights the figures of these heroes emerge from the water, dance above Lake Brienz and finally disappear into the silvery mist – as if the waterfall itself were the gateway to an intermediate world in which history remains alive.
The Grandhotel Giessbach – A castle for dreamers
At the foot of the natural theater, as if straight out of a fairytale, lies the Grandhotel Giessbach. Built in the splendor of the Belle Époque, it is more than a hotel – it is a portal through time. Those arriving from Interlaken on the nostalgic paddle steamer "Lötschberg" and then boarding the bright red Giessbachbahn – Europe's oldest funicular railway used exclusively for tourists – will feel like the hero of a long-gone romance.
Inside and out, the hotel is a poem of light, velvet, and crystal, of salons flickering with fire, of wallpapers that seem to tell stories. The rooms – each one unique – exude the languid splendor that once captivated crown princes and poets, eccentrics and aesthetes. And even today, it's not difficult to dream up your own chapter here – with a view of the waterfall that murmurs to sleep like a well-known legend.
Saved by magic
But the ravages of time almost swallowed this fairytale castle whole. In the 1980s, it stood empty, doomed to demolition. It was only Franz Weber, savior of landscapes and legends, who preserved it for the people. Since then, the Giessbach has belonged not only to Switzerland, but to all who can dream.
Today, backpackers sleep in the chambers where princes once stayed, and some who spend just one night wake up as storytellers – with a story in their heart that they never knew before.
The Giessbach Falls – Water and Wonders
Legends tell of a nymph who lives in the waterfalls, her hair as white as the spray, her eyes as deep as Lake Brienz. Those who encounter her, it is said, forget for a moment that they were once born – and live entirely in the present. Perhaps that is the true magic of this place: that for a while, you forget everything except what truly matters.
For here, where water dances over rocks and light breaks into drops, where past and present flow into one another, travel becomes a return – to ourselves.
