In 1864, 37 Farmers Made a Pact So You Could Land a Paraglider Here Today

There is a 14-hectare meadow in the dead centre of Interlaken. It has no buildings on it. It has no fences. It has no parking. Every other Swiss town built up its core with hotels, banks and boutiques. Interlaken kept this open green field at the heart of town.

If you have visited Interlaken, you have stood on it. It is called the Höhematte, which means high meadow in Swiss German, and it is the single most famous meadow in the Alps. Paragliders land on it. Tourists eat ice cream on it. Children chase footballs on it. The Eiger, the Mönch and the Jungfrau rise behind it like a backdrop painted by someone with too much budget.

But almost nobody who walks across the Höhematte knows the story of how it survived.

This is the story of 37 farmers, a stubborn pact signed in 1864, and the reason Switzerland has its most photographed urban meadow.

The Geography That Made the Meadow

Interlaken sits on a flat alluvial plain between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. The plain was deposited over thousands of years by the Aare river and its tributaries, leaving behind a strip of fertile flat ground in a valley otherwise dominated by mountain walls. By the Middle Ages, this flat strip was already being farmed.

In the 12th century, the Augustinian monks of the Kloster Interlaken (the monastery from which the town takes its name, between the lakes) controlled the land. The Höhematte was used for grazing and hay. The mountains south of the meadow were too steep for agriculture, and the marshy edges of the lakes were unusable. The Höhematte itself was the central productive field of the entire valley.

After the Reformation in the 16th century, the monastery was secularised and the land transferred to the local Bernese state. By the 18th century, the Höhematte had been divided among local farmers, who used it for cattle pasture and the production of hay. The meadow had been a working agricultural field for at least 600 years.

Then came the tourists.

The Threat: 19th-Century Tourism

By the early 1800s, Interlaken was becoming famous in Europe. Lord Byron visited in 1816 and wrote about the views in Manfred. The first English aristocrats arrived in the 1820s, taking the long carriage ride from Bern to spend summers contemplating the Jungfrau. Hotels began opening along what is now the Höheweg, the elegant boulevard that flanks the north edge of the Höhematte.

By the 1850s, the demand for hotel land was growing rapidly. Real estate prices on the Höheweg climbed. Investors looked at the empty meadow in the centre of town and saw a missed opportunity. A consortium proposed buying the Höhematte and turning it into a development zone with hotels, gardens, casinos, perhaps even a small park with paid admission.

The pressure was real. Many Swiss towns of comparable size lost their central commons to 19th-century development. Lucerne built up the lake front. Geneva paved the Jardin Anglais. Lausanne lost its old market field. The Höhematte was, by the standards of European urban planning at the time, an obvious candidate for the same fate.

The 37 farmers who owned the meadow had a decision to make.

The Pact: 1864

In December 1864, the 37 landowners with rights to the Höhematte signed a founding agreement creating the Höhematten-Allmend (literally the Höhematte commons) and an association called the Höhe-Interessentschaft (the Heights Stakeholders Association).

The agreement set one rule, and one rule only:

Nothing shall ever be built on the Höhematte. The view of the mountains shall remain open for all, in perpetuity.

The contract was registered. The meadow was placed in collective ownership under the association. Each of the 37 founding members held one share. Shares could be inherited but never sold to non-members. Decisions required a supermajority of the entire stakeholder group.

The structure was deliberately almost impossible to dissolve. Even if a future generation wanted to build, they could not, because no single member could sell, no minority could force a vote, and the contract was registered with the Bernese cantonal authorities as a perpetual servitude on the land.

The 37 farmers were not romantics. They were practical. They understood that a permanently open meadow with a permanently open mountain view would be more valuable to the entire town in 100 years than any short-term real estate gain.

They were right.

160 Years Later

The Höhematte is still grass. The Jungfrau still rises above it. The Höhe-Interessentschaft still exists, and the descendants of the original 37 families still meet every spring in the Hauptversammlung to vote on minor matters of meadow management (mowing schedule, drainage, occasional event permits).

According to local historical accounts and the association's own records, the families have turned down at least three development proposals over the past century: a casino in the 1920s, a car park in the 1960s, and a hotel project in the 1990s. Each time, the covenant held. Three different eras, three different economic arguments, one answer.

Today the meadow absorbs everything the town throws at it. Nearly every commercial tandem paragliding flight in Interlaken ends here, dozens per day in season, canopies spiralling down in loose sequence from the Harder Kulm and Schynige Platte. The Tellspiele, the open-air theatre festival based on the William Tell legend, has run every summer since 1912 on a stage erected at the meadow's edge. Swiss national day celebrations, music festivals, sporting events come and go. A handful of horse-drawn carriages still cross the grass daily. The Jungfraubahnen leases a small portion of the meadow's edge for its station building, on a temporary lease with a structure that must be removable. Children play football on it. Students lie on it between classes. Paragliding pilots stretch out on it between flights. The 1864 agreement still holds through all of it.

What the meadow looks like in December

From late November, the Höhematte transforms into Ice Magic, a seasonal skating rink installed directly on the grass, with curling tracks laid out beside it and Christmas market stalls along the edges. The same 37-family covenant that blocks hotels and parking lots has never blocked this. The association apparently draws a distinction between permanent construction and seasonal use, and the result is genuinely strange: a legally protected open meadow becomes a public ice rink every winter and a paraglider landing zone every summer, without contradiction. If you're visiting in October and wondering whether the trip is still worth it later in the year, the answer is yes. The mood is different, the Alps are still there, and the history underneath the ice hasn't gone anywhere.

Why Does the Höhematte Story Matter to Visitors?

When you stand on the Höhematte today and watch a paraglider spiral down toward the grass, you are witnessing a 160-year-old promise being kept.

That is not a small thing.

Most landscapes you visit as a tourist are accidents of geography. The Höhematte is an act of will. It exists in its current form because 37 specific people, with names recorded in the cantonal archive (Tschiffeli, Wäfler, Indermühle, Zumkehr, and others), made a deliberate, unsexy, financially counterproductive decision to protect a view. Many of those 37 signatories were farmers and alpine herders, a tradition that survived them. If you want to see what that relationship between land and livestock actually looks like today, Swiss Local Adventures runs a Farm Tour into the Justistal valley, where working alpine farms are still very much the point.

Without them, the Höhematte would be hotels. Paragliding in Interlaken would not exist in its current form, because there would be no central landing zone. The view that brings 1.5 million tourists to Interlaken every year would be partially blocked by the buildings that those tourists would have stayed in.

Visitors keep using the same words for it: the green lung of the town, Interlaken's central park, a spot you can never get tired of. One review described "the largest greens ever seen in the middle of a town," which sounds like hyperbole until you're standing there with the Jungfrau directly ahead and breathtaking alpine views in every direction, and you realise the scale is simply true.

This is the kind of detail that makes Switzerland Switzerland. Long horizons. Stubborn agreements. Decisions made by farmers in 1864 that are still binding in 2026.

How Do I Visit the Höhematte Today?

The Höhematte is open to the public year-round. You can walk across it freely. There is no entrance fee, no opening hours, no closing time.

Most visitors walk across it without knowing they are standing on 160 years of kept promises. That is the hidden history Interlaken never put on a sign.

Timing matters more than people expect. The light at sunset hits the Jungfrau between 8 and 9 p.m. in July and the meadow turns gold, bring a blanket and a bottle of wine. At dawn on a still morning the meadow is empty, the mountains are pink, and you can have the entire centre of Interlaken to yourself. If you want to watch paragliders, the window between 10 a.m. and early afternoon is when traffic builds and descents come in quick succession. The Tellspiele run evenings from mid-July to early September: check the schedule before you go, the open-air setting alone is worth it.

Where to stand when the paragliders come in

Position yourself near the eastern edge of the meadow, roughly halfway between the Höheweg promenade and the centre of the grass. From there you get a clear sightline to the main landing strip without standing in it. On a busy afternoon, watching 10 or 15 paragliders descend in the space of an hour is what one visitor described as "nonstop entertainment," and she wasn't exaggerating. The canopies spiral down in loose sequence, ground crew calling out positions, and if you're not paying attention you might find yourself dodging a landing pilot mid-coffee. The ground crew are generally happy to suggest where to stand for the best photos. Give landing pilots a few metres of space, and the rest is free.

💡 Insider Tip from Pierre: If you walk across the Höhematte at 7 a.m. on a clear summer morning, before the first paragliders launch and before the cafés open on the Höheweg, you have one of the most peaceful 14-hectare green spaces in the Alps to yourself. Bring a coffee from the train station kiosk. Sit on the bench at the western edge facing the Jungfrau. That is what Lord Byron would have done in 1816, and it has not changed.

FAQ - The Höhematte Story

What is the Höhematte in Interlaken?

The Höhematte is a 14-hectare meadow in the centre of Interlaken, kept permanently free of buildings since 1864 by an agreement between 37 local landowners. It is the main paragliding landing zone in the region and a public green space.

Why is the Höhematte protected?

In 1864, the 37 farmers who owned the meadow signed a binding agreement creating the Höhe-Interessentschaft, an association that prevents any construction on the land in perpetuity. The aim was to preserve the view of the Jungfrau for the town's future.

Can you walk on the Höhematte?

Yes. It is fully open to the public year-round. No entrance fee, no opening hours.

Where do paragliders land in Interlaken?

On the Höhematte, the central meadow of Interlaken. It is one of the most famous tandem paragliding landing zones in Europe.

What does Höhematte mean?

High meadow in Swiss German. The name refers to its position on the elevated alluvial plain above the surrounding lake levels.

Who owns the Höhematte today?

The Höhe-Interessentschaft, an association of around 37 local stakeholders descended from the original 1864 founding members. The land cannot be sold to outside parties.

Is the Höhematte the same as Interlaken's central park?

Most people call it that, and the comparison isn't wrong, exactly. The meadow sits in the heart of town, it's open to everyone, and it functions like a park in every practical sense. But it isn't one. The Höhematte is private property, collectively owned by the descendants of the original 37 families and managed by their association, not by the municipality of Interlaken. The town has no authority over it. That's the detail that turns a nice green space into something more interesting: a city's most visited public square that the city doesn't own.

Are dogs allowed on the Höhematte?

The meadow is accessible around the clock with no restrictions posted at the entrance, and dogs generally come and go freely. That said, the paraglider landing area creates an unpredictable environment. Canopies come in fast and low, lines trail across the grass, and ground crew move quickly. Some dogs take it in stride; others find the sudden noise and activity harder to manage. If your dog is easily startled, the eastern edge of the meadow away from the main landing strip is calmer. Keep a short lead near active landing areas and you'll be fine.

What events take place on the Höhematte?

Quite a few, across the full calendar year. The William Tell Open, an ATP tennis tournament, sets up on the meadow each summer and draws a proper crowd. Open-air concerts and markets run through the warmer months. Come winter, Ice Magic takes over with the skating rink, curling, and Christmas stalls. The association's willingness to host seasonal events while refusing permanent construction is one of the more consistent threads in the meadow's history: the grass stays, everything else packs up and leaves.

How far is the Höhematte from Interlaken Ost station?

Roughly 12 minutes on foot, walking west along the Höheweg. That boulevard is Interlaken's main promenade and one of the better short walks in the Bernese Oberland, with uninterrupted views of the Jungfrau group opening up as you go. The walk itself is worth taking slowly. Most people head straight for the meadow and miss it.

Visit the Meadow That History Saved

There are more spectacular views in the Bernese Oberland. But there is no meadow with a better story. Most people who hear it say the same thing: I had no idea this existed.

The Höhematte is not the most spectacular meadow you will ever see. There are higher alpine pastures with bigger views. There are wildflowers in Lauterbrunnen and panoramas at Schynige Platte that beat it on raw beauty.

What the Höhematte has that no other meadow in the Alps has is a story. A 160-year-old story about how a small group of farmers made a decision in 1864 that is still shaping the town in 2026.

If you want to experience the meadow at its best, plan around either dawn or sunset, bring a layer for the cool evening air, and stay long enough to watch a paraglider land. That moment, when a stranger drops out of the sky onto a meadow protected by a contract older than most countries, is one of the most genuinely Swiss things you can witness as a visitor.

For the experience of landing on the Höhematte yourself, read our complete guide to paragliding in Interlaken, or check availability directly with the operators who land here every afternoon.

Some destinations are accidents. The Höhematte is a deliberate act of preservation, signed in ink in 1864, still holding in 2026.

*Written by Olivia Lufman, your travel writer at Swiss Local Adventures

Source:

on-site visit to the Höhematte, Interlaken, 2026.