Villa Tyndall

The Irish scientist and alpinist John Tyndall first travelled to Switzerland in 1856. From 1861 until his death, he spent summers in the Swiss Alps, mainly at his favourite place, the Belalp. In 1876, Tyndall and his wife Louisa decided to build a chalet above the Hotel Belalp in the style of an English country house.

Alpe Lüsgen

On 13 August 1876, the Burgerschaft Naters agreed by 88 votes to six that John Tyndall could purchase a total of five Fischel of land (2,815m2) at a price of CHF 900 on Alpe Lüsgen. In the purchase contract drawn up by the notary Ludwig Salzmann, it is stated that the Burgergemeinde of Naters "sells, transfers and assigns to John Tyndall a piece of matt land, situated on the mountain Naters, on the Alp Lusgen, called im Gscher, containing five Fischel or twenty-eight thousand and eighty square shoes, bordering on all sides on the Burgeralpe of Naters", under guarantee of all disturbance, expulsion and mortgage, but subject to ratification by the high government. The construction of the villa was ordered without delay and in November 1877 the villa "Alp Lusgen" was ready for occupancy. His own four walls on the Belalp became his spiritual home, a small Alpine university.

The architecture of the Villa Tyndall

The elongated stone house, comprising only ground floor and attic, is situated on a small rocky terrace above the Hotel Belalp. In the centre of the villa is the salon with its crescent-shaped projection towards the south. The house has a crippled hipped roof and below the gable fields there are pointed-arched twin windows on the sides. The original shingle roof is still preserved under the eternit roof from 1964. In addition, the house has four chimney constructions. To the south-west of the house, a natural rocky knoll has also been shaped by means of a staircase.