Saas-Fee, Canton of Valais, Switzerland

🇨🇭 Saas-Fee is the main village in the Saastal, or the Saas Valley, and is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. The village is situated on a high mountain plateau at 1,800 meters (5,900 feet), surrounded by a total of 13 peaks above 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) which is the highest concentration in the Alps, giving the village the nickname the Pearl of the Alps. It is a classic ski resort characterised by well-preserved Swiss wood architecture and a car-free city centre. The villages in its neighbourhood are Saas-Almagell, Saas-Grund and Saas-Balen.

Overview Its location close to the glaciers of the Dom and the Allalinhorn provides winter sport opportunities throughout the year, and neighbouring peaks such as the Weissmies, the Nadelhorn and the Lenzspitze are popular climbs in the summer season. The community is considered to be a very attractive winter sport destination in the Swiss Alps. Typical activities include skiing, snowboarding, snowshoe trekking, canyon climbing and ice climbing.

Saas-Fee offers 22 lifts, including 3 cable cars, 1 funicular railway (Metro Alpin), 5 gondolas (1 dedicated to walkers), 2 chairlifts, the remainder being surface lifts (draglifts). The ski run has a vertical drop of 1,800 m (5,906 ft), a top elevation of 3,600 m (11,811 ft) and covers 150 km (93 mi) (80 km (50 mi) beginner, 45 km (28 mi) intermediate, 25 km (16 mi) advanced). Other activities include paragliding, hang gliding, and tobogganing.

Saas-Fee can be reached by car or bus – postal buses run during much of the day half-hourly from Brig and Visp, though none provides a service beyond the bus terminal through the length of the town during the winter. No cars are allowed to enter the city (they have to be parked in special car parks outside); only small electric vehicles operate on the streets between the hotels and ski area. The decision to exclude most motor vehicles was made by the village at the time of the construction of the road from Saas Grund in 1951 in order to eliminate air pollution.

The resort offers many culture, sports, and off-slope activities, including classical music, a sports and leisure complex, restaurants, and nightclubs. The resort features the highest underground funicular railway in the world up to the skiing area and the highest revolving restaurant in the world at 3,500 m (11,500 ft). The touristic slogan of Saas-Fee is "Die Perle der Alpen" (The Pearl of the Alps) as it is surrounded by a total of 13 peaks above 4,000 metres (13,123 feet), the most in the Alps. The campus of the European Graduate School is located in Saas-Fee.

Saas-Fee has a well-preserved city centre characterised by wood and stone-based architecture. Design guidelines for the village require houses to be 40% wooden, to maintain its character.

History Saas-Fee is first mentioned in 1304 as vee. The municipality was formerly known by its French name Fée ([fe]); however, that name is no longer used.

Geography Saas-Fee has an area, as of 2011, of 40.6 square km (15.7 sq mi). Of this area, 5.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 9.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.3% is settled (buildings or roads) and 83.6% is unproductive land.

The municipality is located in the Visp district, at the foot of Dom Mountain. The village is surrounded by thirteen Four-thousander mountains (mountains that are at least 4,000 meters (13,000 ft) above sea level).

Economy As of  2010, Saas-Fee had an unemployment rate of 3.3%. As of 2008, there were 5 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 2 businesses involved in this sector. 131 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 19 businesses in this sector. 1,169 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 182 businesses in this sector. There were 883 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.8% of the workforce.

In 2008 the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 1,197. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 2, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 124 of which 34 or (27.4%) were in manufacturing and 87 (70.2%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 1,071. In the tertiary sector; 181 or 16.9% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 125 or 11.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 615 or 57.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 17 or 1.6% were the insurance or financial industry, 32 or 3.0% were technical professionals or scientists, 17 or 1.6% were in education and 12 or 1.1% were in health care.

In 2000, there were 227 workers who commuted into the municipality and 65 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 3.5 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. Of the working population, 6.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 4.3% used a private car.

Religion From the 2000 census, 1,177 or 80.9% were Roman Catholic, while 101 or 6.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 81 members of an Orthodox church (or about 5.57% of the population), and there was one individual who belongs to another Christian church. There was one individual who was Jewish, and 12 (or about 0.83% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 22 (or about 1.51% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 55 individuals (or about 3.78% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education In Saas-Fee about 613 or (42.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 113 or (7.8%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 113 who completed tertiary schooling, 65.5% were Swiss men, 19.5% were Swiss women, 9.7% were non-Swiss men and 5.3% were non-Swiss women.

During the 2010–2011 school year, there were a total of 137 students in the Saas-Fee school system. The education system in the Canton of Valais allows young children to attend one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten. During that school year, there 2 kindergarten classes (KG1 or KG2) and 32 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school. In Saas-Fee, there were a total of 8 classes and 137 students in the primary school. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling (orientation classes), followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. All the lower and upper secondary students from Saas-Fee attend their school in a neighboring municipality.

As of 2000, there were 73 students from Saas-Fee who attended schools outside the municipality.

Saas Fee is also the location of the European Graduate School. EGS was established in 1994 as a postgraduate degree-granting school. Founding contributors included eminent philosophers such as Jacques Derrida and Jean-François Lyotard, and many leading thinkers teach there to this day, including Slavoj Žižek, Judith Butler, Alain Badiou, Peter Greenaway, and Geert Lovink.