Taubenloch (French: Gorges du Taubenloch) is a

gorge A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

in the

Canton of Bern The canton of Bern or Berne (german: Kanton Bern; rm, Chantun Berna; french: canton de Berne; it, Canton Berna) is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. ...

, above

Biel/Bienne Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; , ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Biel/Bienne (administrative district), Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Swi ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. It crosses the first Jura Mountain chain, as considered from the

Swiss Plateau The Swiss Plateau or Central Plateau (german: Schweizer Mittelland; french: plateau suisse; it, altopiano svizzero) is one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland, lying between the Jura Mountains and the Swiss Alps. It covers about 30% of ...

Location

The gorge covers a length of around 2 kilometres between

Frinvillier Frinvillier, in German ''Friedliswart'', is a village in the Canton of Bern, district of Courtelary. Its populations is around 185 people. It belongs to the Bernese Jura, on the territory of the community Vauffelin. Tourism In Frinvillier starts ...

(altitude: 517 m) and Bözingen, a suburb of Biel/Bienne (altitude 447 m). The Suze flows deep in the gorge, originating in the

Erguel Erguël is an medieval seigniory of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Basel, and under protectorate of Biel/Bienne, under military jurisdiction from 1335, in the now called valley of St.-Imier, in the now Bernese Jura, Switzerland. The Sire of the ...

valley near

Saint-Imier Saint-Imier () is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura (''Jura Bernois''). The Observatoire Astronomique de Mont-Soleil is located abo ...

and finally flowing to the

Lake of Bienne __NOTOC__ Lake Bienne or Lake Biel (french: Lac de Bienne ; german: Bielersee) is a lake in western Switzerland. Together with Lake Morat and Lake Neuchâtel, it is one of the three large lakes in the Jura region of Switzerland. It lies approxim ...

History

The gorge is one of the rare natural crossings from the Swiss Plateau to the Jura mountains between

Schaffhausen Schaffhausen (; gsw, Schafuuse; french: Schaffhouse; it, Sciaffusa; rm, Schaffusa; en, Shaffhouse) is a list of towns in Switzerland, town with historic roots, a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in northern Switzerland, and the ...

and

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

. The area was already well colonised at the time of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

: one of the main

Roman roads Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

from Rome led through

Helvetii The Helvetii ( , Gaulish: *''Heluētī''), anglicized as Helvetians, were a Celts, Celtic tribe or tribal confederation occupying most of the Swiss plateau at the time of their Switzerland in the Roman era, contact with the Roman Republic in the ...

Aventicum Aventicum was the largest town and capital of Roman Switzerland (Helvetia or Civitas Helvetiorum). Its remains are beside the modern town of Avenches. The city was probably created ''ex nihilo'' in the early 1st century AD, as the capital of t ...

(

Avenches Avenches () is a Swiss municipality in the canton of Vaud, located in the district of Broye-Vully. History The roots of Avenches go back to the Celts. A tribe of Helvetians had built a settlement on the hills of Bois de Châtel, south of th ...

). It continued through

Morat Morat may refer to: * Morat, Switzerland, or Murten, a town in Switzerland * Battle of Morat (1476), between the Swiss Federation and Charles I, Duke of Burgundy * Morat (band), a Colombian folk band * Morat, a type of mead that uses mulberries. S ...

, Chiètres and

Kallnach Kallnach (french: Chouchignies) is a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2019 the former municipality of Golaten merged into the municipality of Kallnach. History Kallnach i ...

to Solodorum (

Solothurn Solothurn ( , ; french: Soleure ; it, Soletta ; rm, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the Capital (political), capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the n ...

) and

Vindonissa Vindonissa (from a Gaulish toponym in *''windo-'' "white") was a Roman legion camp, vicus and later a bishop's seat at modern Windisch, Switzerland. The remains of the camp are listed as a heritage site of national significance. The city of Br ...

(

Windisch Windisch may refer to: * Windisch (surname) (including a list of people with the name) * Windisch, Switzerland, a municipality in the canton of Aargau * Windisch (ethnonym), German word Wends for Slavs * Windisch Kamnitz, German name of Srbská Ka ...

), along the eastern part of the Seeland (lake land). Via

Witzwil The Justizvollzugsanstalt Witzwil (Prison Witzwil) is a men's prison in the canton of Bern, Switzerland. It consists of a closed part and a number of minimum security habitation units. The prisoners work on the institution's huge farm estate on t ...

, a second road crossed the Seeland between the

Lake of Neuchâtel A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

and the lake of Morat. A spur road from Petinesca went through the steep gorge of Taubenloch, crossed the Jura through the ''

Col de Pierre Pertuis Col de Pierre Pertuis (el. 827 m.) is a mountain pass in the Jura Mountains in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It connects Sonceboz and Tavannes. The name of the pass comes from the Latin: ''Petra pertusa'', meaning ''broken rock''. Th ...

'' pass, and lead to

Augusta Raurica Augusta Raurica is a Roman archaeological site and an open-air museum in Switzerland located on the south bank of the Rhine river about 20 km east of Basel near the villages of Augst and Kaiseraugst. It is the site of the oldest known Roma ...

and what is now modern

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 ...

along the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

Origin of the name

The name ''Taubenloch'' was found for the first time in a document dated 1532. Several versions as to its provenience are still being debated. *Daubenloch, from the German words ''Daube'', meaning

precipice In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on coa ...

trench A trench is a type of excavation or in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a wider gully, or ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or pit). In geology, trenches result from eros ...

, and ''Loch'', meaning hole or cavity. *''Die Taube'': according to local legend, a young man loved a young girl who was so beautiful, charming and gracious that her nickname was ''die Taube /'' fr.'' la Colombe'' (the

dove Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

). They wanted to get married, but she was chased away by the despotic Sire of nearby Rondchâtel and found a sorry escape from his clutches in throwing herself to death down the gorge. The gorge was henceforth called the ''Taubenlochschlucht'' (The Gorge of the Dove) in her memory. *Similar, but less romantic: (''Taube''), also meaning pigeon, in reference to birds which allegedly nested in the gorge.

Hiking

A private non-profit corporation was founded in 1889, La société d’exploitation des gorges du Taubenloch, for the only purpose of establishing a hiking path throughout the gorge. Since 1927, part of the Taubenlochschlucht is one of the protected natural sites in Switzerland.

Transjurane T16

Traffic runs through either side of Taubenloch, route 18 (south) and route 6 (north). The "

Transjurane The Kingdom of Upper Burgundy was a Frankish dominion established in 888 by the Welf king Rudolph I of Burgundy on the territory of former Middle Francia. It grew out of the Carolingian margraviate of Transjurane Burgundy (''Transjurania'', ) ...

" motorway project is expected to be finalised between 2025 and 2030, by following the route of the gorge and linking up what is now the E27.

Sources and references

Tourisme Bienne-Seeland: Excursion gorges du Taubenloch
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110706222738/http://www.vol.be.ch/site/fr/71d_o_13_tubeloch.pdf BE Division forrestière agenda de sécurisation / route romainebr>Nouvel éboulement: fermeture 01.08.2009La légende de la petite colombe
{{coord, 47.157778, 7.264722, display=title Canyons and gorges of Switzerland Landforms of the canton of Bern Tourist attractions in the Canton of Bern