Page 46 - DIVA1 2026

Where the time has stopped

By Evelina Rioukhina and Gertrud Attar

You do not need to travel a thousand miles to get • Unique events (like, for example, masked
to a place where time has stopped. Simply take Mummers) or ceremonial cattle descents. While
the train, and you will be there in less than five the first one is unparalleled, the cattle drives are
hours. Take the direct train from Geneva to St typical for Switzerland and very beautiful in all
Gallen and get off at Gossau station, where your cantons (on the UNESCO intangible heritage
journey back in time will begin. But don’t think list since 2023). Those events are as traditional,
you’re going to a completely forgotten place. You ceremonial, and historic here as they were many
will experience something distinctive that is not centuries ago, and you can be sure – they will
well known or understood by outsiders — or even remain this exact way for centuries to come.
by the inhabitants (like us Genevans). Some call • The Landsgemeinde: a traditional open-air
it the most bizarre place in Switzerland, but also assembly where citizens vote on laws by raising
one of the most captivating. The ultra-modern their hands. They do it proudly; this is direct
red train-tram will take you to this place, it’s democracy in action in the main square, where
called the Appenzelland. Here, everything slows a huge monument shows a person voting openly
down time, or even makes it ‘stand still’. The so that all can see how each person votes. This
groomed hills, which look almost artificial, are event is conducted with a ceremony dating back
dotted with brown cows and historic houses, as many centuries, and they want to preserve it this
if in an old postcard from centuries ago. Time way. Come on 26 April 2026 to the central square
has stopped. You could even stop your watch. of Appenzell – you can witness this unique event
You will feel as if you are in a time capsule. But firsthand.
there are reasons for this ‘time capsule’: • Landscape – this is what adds to it: the groomed
• Deep-rooted traditions – they are part of daily rolling hills leading to dramatic limestone cliffs
life, not for tourist performance; people live with with a culminating point – the mountain range
them and are proud of keeping them that way. of Säntis, which, as if, locks the landscape. On a

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