Mediendossier-Sommer_Herbst-2022-EN
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Culture and heritage<br />
COMEDY SAAS-FEE<br />
The Comédie Saas-Fee theatre was founded in December<br />
2019, when it was still called Kulturhaus Rex.<br />
It all started when the actor, writer, director and theatre<br />
producer Michael Klemm was attracted to Carl<br />
Zuckmayer’s last homeland and staged Zuckmayer’s<br />
DER FRÖHLICHE WEINBERG there in summer 2019 in<br />
Saas-Grund on the open-air stage. He fell in love with<br />
Saas-Fee and stayed on, founding the theatre in the<br />
former premises of the Rex cinema. The result is a wonderful<br />
troupe of local and foreign actors from all over<br />
Switzerland and even Germany. The Comédie Saas-<br />
Fee offers a wide range of classics. Since September<br />
2021, the troupe has been performing at various venues<br />
in Saas-Fee.<br />
SAAS MUSEUM<br />
When you visit the four-storey Saas Museum, you’ll<br />
go on a journey back in time in the Saas-Fee/Saastal<br />
holiday region. Some exhibits of the museum include a<br />
Saas flat from the turn of the century, folkloric objects,<br />
beautiful and traditional historic costumes, sacred art<br />
and – a special highlight – the study of the famous<br />
writer Carl Zuckmayer, who lived in Saas-Fee for twenty<br />
years. The building housing today’s Saas Museum is the<br />
former parsonage of Saas-Fee, which was built in 1732.<br />
Another storey was added in 1855. In 1983, this old traditional<br />
Saas-style house was reimagined as a museum<br />
thanks to the initiative of local historian Werner Imseng.<br />
EXHIBITION<br />
FATHER JOHANN JOSEF IMS<strong>EN</strong>G<br />
To this day, the work of the pastor and tourism pioneer<br />
Johann Josef Imseng (1806–1869) is of great importance<br />
in this region. He also went down in history as the<br />
first person to ski in the Alps, on 20 December 1849.<br />
On that day, the Saas Valley lay under a thick blanket<br />
of snow. A distress call reached the ears of the valley’s<br />
Father Johann Josef Imseng, who was staying in Saas-<br />
Fee. He had been called to the bedside of a dying man<br />
in Saas-Grund. In an act that marked a pivotal moment<br />
in history, he tied homemade wooden boards to his hiking<br />
boots and set off, completing the first-ever downhill<br />
ski run in Switzerland. Johann Josef Imseng was not just<br />
an excellent pastor. He also actively promoted tourism<br />
in the Saas Valley with the aim of fighting poverty. He<br />
opened his doors to guests, worked as a mountain<br />
guide, and told his guests all about the history and customs<br />
of the Saas Valley. The visionary pastor even arranged<br />
for hotels to be built. It was thanks to his intervention<br />
that people felt comfortable visiting this place.<br />
He was himself a man of the mountains and took part in<br />
many of the early mountain climbs. The memorial exhibition<br />
in honour of this pioneer of Saas tourism can be<br />
visited in the old parsonage of Saas-Grund during the<br />
summer months.<br />
Culture and heritage<br />
Winter sports in the<br />
summer<br />
Starting in mid-July, 20 kilometres of slopes will be<br />
available on the Fee Glacier. During the high season,<br />
our summer ski area has around 1,200 visitors every<br />
day (mainly professional training teams). Over 330<br />
teams train on our glacier every year, about a quarter of<br />
which are national teams. Around 20 countries in Europe,<br />
as well as North America and Japan, send their<br />
professionals to us to prepare for the season. Three<br />
ski lifts have been in operation so far, the fourth was<br />
completed at the end of 2018 and has since expanded<br />
the capacity of the ski area on the glacier. The Swiss<br />
Ski Team is particularly pleased about this – elite Swiss<br />
skiers have always trained in the glacier village, so they<br />
feel at home here. Our Freestyle Park on the Fee Glacier<br />
is another magnet for athletes in summer. The park<br />
is a state-of-the-art training space for freestylers. The<br />
Stomping Grounds, a high-intensity training boot camp,<br />
also takes place here every autumn. The park set-up<br />
consists of a rail and kicker line as well as a halfpipe<br />
and attracts top pros from all over the world to prepare<br />
for the new season in private training sessions.<br />
Summer ski<br />
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