Scheidegg is a market town and municipality in the district of

Lindau Lindau (german: Lindau (Bodensee), ''Lindau am Bodensee''; ; Low Alemannic: ''Lindou'') is a major town and island on the eastern side of Lake Constance (''Bodensee'' in German) in Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital of the county (''Landkreis' ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and a licensed Kneipp cure spa and open-air health resort.

Geography

Located in the

Westallgäu Westallgäu is the western part of the Allgäu in Germany. It contains large parts of the districts of Lindau in the south west of the region, Swabia in Bavaria and the district of Ravensburg in the south east of Baden-Württemberg. Westallgäu ex ...

region, the municipality of Scheidegg consists of the town of Scheidegg and the district of Scheffau. To the west and south, the municipality borders on the

Bregenz Forest The Bregenz Forest (german: Bregenzerwald, ) is one of the main regions in the state of Vorarlberg (Austria). It overlaps, but is not coterminous with, the Bregenz Forest Mountains, which belong to a range of the Northern Limestone Alps, specific ...

, which is part of the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n state of

Vorarlberg Vorarlberg ( , ; gsw, label= Vorarlbergisch, Vorarlbearg, , or ) is the westernmost state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the ...

History

The area around Scheidegg was most likely settled for the first time in the 6th and 7th centuries by the Alamanni. Until 1481 it belonged to Weiler and was - due to the document being lost - first mentioned in 1255 in

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website = ...

. The imperial Benedictine abbey of St. Gallen promoted

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

. In 1296, Abbot Wilhelm sold Scheidegg to Count Hugo of

Bregenz Bregenz (; gsw, label= Vorarlbergian, Breagaz ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switze ...

(Montfort). The area, which the Habsburgs had purchased in 1571, remained part of Vorarlberg until the Treaty of Pressburg in 1805 (Napoleon), and later became part of

. The tradition of Scheidegg as a spa and tourist location dates to the turn of the 20th century. When the first summer visitors came to Scheidegg after the construction of the railway line from Röthenbach to Scheidegg, the first attempt to attract tourism was made by founding the Association for Transport and Beautification in 1902. The construction of the Prinzregent-Luitpold-Kinderklinik (a paedriatic clinic) in 1912 was the cornerstone for the development of Scheidegg into a spa. In 1936 Scheidegg became a licensed air-health resort. A new start was required after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The importance of officially qualifying as a spa was soon acknowledged, and hence the first licensed kneippism business was established in 1964. In 1972, the municipalities of Scheidegg und Scheffau were merged as part of the municipal reform in Bavaria.

Tourism

Scheidegg has a capacity of about 3,200 guests. Every year about 450,000 stays are booked. Consequently, Scheidegg is among the 10 largest spas and tourist resorts in the

Allgäu The Allgäu (Standard German: , also Allgovia) is a region in Swabia in southern Germany. It covers the south of Bavarian Swabia, southeastern Baden-Württemberg, and parts of Austria. The region stretches from the pre-alpine lands up to the A ...

/ Swabia region.

Culture and sights

The Catholic parish church of St. Gallus, featuring paintings by Ludwig Glötzle from

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, and the evangelical resurrection church with an accessible maze, can be found in the town centre. Scheidegg has 13

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

s in its vicinity, one of which is ecumenical. All the chapels are connected with the aforementioned churches and the Kreuzberg by the small and large ecumenical chapel route, which is unique in

. Scheidegg is located on the ''Westallgäuer Käsestraße'' (Westallgäu cheese route), and the local alpine dairy in the district of Böserscheidegg can be visited, including a tasting of Allgäuer

Emmentaler Emmental, Emmentaler, or Emmenthal is a yellow, medium-hard cheese that originated in the area around Emmental, in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is classified as a Swiss-type or Alpine cheese. Emmental was first mentioned in written re ...

and other local cheeses. Other attractions include the reptile zoo, the museum of local history and the ''Scheidegger Wasserfälle'' (Scheidegg waterfalls). There are the ''"Original Scheidegger Wasserfälle"'', with a service and parking lot, as well as the surrounding waterfalls: ''Hasenreuter Wasserfälle'', ''Schwedenhöhle'' and ''Rickenbachfälle''.

Notable people living in Scheidegg

* Tobias Steinhauser,

cyclist Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...

References

External links

Official website

Scheidegger Wasserfälle in summer and winter
{{Authority control Lindau (district)