Forch is a village and a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...

(el. ) located in the

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Küsnacht Küsnacht () is a municipality in the district of Meilen in the canton of Zürich, Switzerland. History Küsnacht is first mentioned in 1188 as ''de Cussenacho''. Earliest findings of settlement date back to the Stone Age. There are also findi ...

and Maur in the

canton of Zürich The canton of Zurich is an administrative unit (Swiss canton, canton) of Switzerland, situated in the northeastern part of the country. With a population of (as of ), it is the most populous canton of Switzerland. Zurich is the ''de facto'' Capi ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Geography

Forch is located approximately in the southeast of

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, nearby Zumikon and Maur. It includes the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

''Aesch'' and ''Scheuren'' (villages of the municipality Maur), and ''Kaltenstein'' in the east of the pass, ''Wangen'' and ''Neue Forch'', which are villages of the municipality of Küsnacht. The forested hill called ''Guldenen'' on Pfannenstiel belongs to the Forch area, ''Hinter Guldenen'' to the municipality of Maur and ''Vorder Guldenen'' is part of the municipality of

Egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

. The mountain pass named ''Forch'' connects Küsnacht on

Lake Zürich Lake Zurich (, ; ) is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zurich. Depending on the context, Lake Zurich or can be used to describe the lake as a whole, or just that part of the lake downstream of the Hurden peninsula and ...

and Maur on Greifensee respectively in the

Glatt Valley The Glatt Valley (German: ''Glattal'' or ''Glatttal'') is a region and a river valley in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. Geography The Glatt (Rhine), Glatt is a tributary to the Rhine in the Zürcher Unterland area of the canton of Zuric ...

. A monument called ''Wehrmännerdenkmal'' commemorating

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

is located nearby ''Neue Forch'' and ''Wassberg'' hill (el. ), which is also a popular recreation area for the people of the city of Zürich.

Village of Forch

The population of the village of Forch is about 3,004 (). The village has preserved its rural character. Since 1912, Forch is a stop of the

Forchbahn The Forch railway (, ''FB'', nicknamed ''Förchler'', ''Frieda'', ''Frieda Bünzli'' by locals) is a local mixed tramway / railway line in the Switzerland, Swiss canton of Zürich. It is owned and operated by the Forchbahn AG, and is branded as ...

, a

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

way of the

S-Bahn Zürich The Zurich S-Bahn () system is a network of rail lines that has been incrementally expanded to cover the ZVV area, which comprises the entire canton of Zurich and portions of neighbouring cantons (Canton of Aargau, Aargau, Canton of Gla ...

, between the Stadelhofen in Zürich and the municipality of Esslingen. Forch village is connected by the A52 highway to Zumikon (to the northwestwest) and

Hinwil Hinwil is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Hinwil (district), Hinwil in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zurich (canton), Zürich in Switzerland. History The village Hinwil from which the later municipality ...

(to the southeast) heading to the

Zürcher Oberland The Zürcher Oberland ("Zürich highlands") in Switzerland, is the hilly south-eastern part of the canton of Zürich, bordering on the Toggenburg, including the districts of Uster, Hinwil, Pfäffikon as well as the Töss Valley as far as the di ...

. Thus Forch is the biggest village within the municipality of Maur. Nevertheless, its infrastructure, apart from

Kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

, primary school, small retail facilities and hospitality is modest, i.e. most infrastructure facilities are located in the surrounding villages, e.g.

and Maur.

History

The tavern "Zur Krone" (''crown'') was built in 1783 on the summit of the Forch pass, 1836-1901 a horse's station, on the post route from Zürich to the municipality of Egg, which was in 1905 replaced by a bus line. Around 1900, a small settlement of eight houses was established, 12 years later the train station of the

was built. The war memorial was built in 1922. Around 1960 the region became part of the growing agglomeration of the city of Zürich, and the villages of Forch, Scheuren and Aesch turned to an upscale residential district.

Attractions

The main attractions on the northwestern slope of the primeval landscape of the Pfannenstiel area, there are sometimes rock slides occurring there, the last on 24 April 2013 when a boulder crashed on the pathway of the Küsnachter Tobel. Nevertheless, the pathway is very popular for hiking, usually starting in Forch and ending at the landing gate of the Zürichsee lake transportation company ''

Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft The Lake Zurich Navigation Company (, ZSG) is a public Swiss company operating passenger ships and boats on Lake Zurich () and the river Limmat in Zurich.The company's services connect lake-side towns between Zurich and Rapperswil/ Schmerikon, i ...

'' (ZSG) in Küsnacht. Points of interest include the so-called ''Drachenhöhle'' towards the Wulp Castle besides the gorge: The literally ''Dragon's Den'' is a small cave that was washed out of the glacial Nagelfluh conglomerate. The so-called ''Dorfbach'' stream is also one of the most important spawning grounds for

lake trout The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater Salvelinus, char living mainly in lakes in Northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, laker, and grey trout. In Lake Sup ...

, although the number of spawning animals was as of 2013 very modest. Some

glacial erratic A glacial erratic is a glacially deposited rock (geology), rock differing from the type of country rock (geology), rock native to the area in which it rests. Erratics, which take their name from the Latin word ' ("to wander"), are carried by gla ...

s respectively the so-called ''Findlingsgarten'' at the lower end of the gorge towards Küsnacht, as well as the idyllic landscape, are further points of attraction. Towards Küsnacht there are the local historical museum and the historical core of Küsnacht, located at the southern entrance of the ravine, and the early medieval ''Zehntenhaus'' granary on the lake shore landing gate, where the ''Forch'' and other motor ship of the

provide public transport between

Rapperswil Rapperswil (Swiss German: or ;Andres Kristol, ''Rapperswil SG (See)'' in: ''Dictionnaire toponymique des communes suisses – Lexikon der schweizerischen Gemeindenamen – Dizionario toponomastico dei comuni svizzeri (DTS, LSG)'', Centre de dial ...

and Bürkliplatz in Zürich.

Transport

Forch railway station lies within the village and is the principal intermediate station and headquarters of the

(FB), which is operated as Zürich S-Bahn service S18 and provides links between Zürich-Stadelhofen and the village of Esslingen.

Bus Service

There are three frequent bus lines starting from the southernmost station in Forch, Scheuren. Two are headed north, for Klusplatz and Stettbach respectively, while the last one is bound south for Esslingen.

References

External links

Official website of the municipality of Maur
* {{authority control Mountain passes of Switzerland Villages in the canton of Zürich Mountain passes of the canton of Zürich Transport in the canton of Zürich