Handpicked experience
This canton still passes its laws by a show of hands in the village square — and its men voted to keep women out of that square until a court overruled them in 1990.
A square where binding law is still made in the open air
A democratic tradition and its own hardest chapter in one place
A flavour that comes from a recipe nobody will tell you
A ridge-end platform facing four countries at once
Milk tasted where it was drawn that morning
An eleven-hour day into eastern Switzerland: the cable car up Hoher Kasten for the view along the Alpstein ridge, a stop in Appenzell village, a working farm with fresh milk, and a cheese-making demonstration and tasting at the show dairy.
Appenzell Innerrhoden is one of only two cantons in Switzerland that still holds a Landsgemeinde — an open-air assembly where every eligible citizen gathers in the village square and votes by show of hands.
It happens on the last Sunday in April. Laws are passed and officials elected in public, counted by eye from a platform, in the same square you will walk through. There is no ballot box and no privacy; you raise your hand in front of your neighbours and they raise theirs in front of you.
It is the oldest form of democracy still in working use in Europe, and it is not a re-enactment. The decisions are binding.
The same square carries a harder fact, and it is worth stating plainly rather than skipping.
Swiss women received the federal vote in 1971. In Appenzell Innerrhoden, the men of the Landsgemeinde voted repeatedly to keep cantonal matters to themselves, and the last of those votes was in 1990. It took a ruling by the Federal Supreme Court that autumn to force the change, making this the last place in Switzerland where women were admitted to the cantonal vote — within living memory of most people reading this.
The tradition and that delay are the same institution. Seeing the square is more interesting when you know both.
Appenzeller is a washed-rind cheese, and what it is washed with is the point.
During maturing, each wheel is rubbed at intervals with a herbal brine — the Sulz — made to a recipe that is genuinely restricted, known to a small number of people and not published. Herbs, wine, spices and cider are all in circulation as guesses. The brine does the work of the flavour, and it is why the crust smells the way it does.
You will taste the difference between maturities in the tasting: the same milk, the same method, longer under the brine.
Hoher Kasten stands at the end of the Alpstein ridge, which is why the platform gives a full circle rather than a valley view: Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria and Germany are all visible from the same spot on a clear day.
Clear is the operative word. The ridge collects cloud, and the cable car runs regardless of whether there is anything to see from the top.
This is a long day and a good deal of it is the coach — eastern Switzerland is a distance from Lucerne and a considerable one from Interlaken.
The village and the farm involve walking on uneven ground. Bring a layer for the summit, which is cold even when the valley is warm. Hotel pickup is not part of this arrangement; you will be given a meeting point in your departure city.
Same route either way — the difference is who else is in the vehicle. Open one to see its dates and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
An open-air assembly where eligible citizens gather in the square and vote by show of hands. Appenzell Innerrhoden is one of only two cantons still holding one.
The last Sunday in April, and the decisions taken are binding rather than ceremonial.
1990, after the Federal Supreme Court ordered it. Swiss women had held the federal vote since 1971.
Every citizen of the canton aged eighteen and over, women included since the ruling, standing together in the same square.
The rind is washed during maturing with a herbal brine, and the brine does the work of the flavour.
Yes. It is known to a small number of people and has never been published, though herbs, wine, spices and cider all circulate as guesses.
Around eighteen hundred metres, reached in a single cable car stage from the valley floor.
The ridge collects cloud and the cable car runs regardless, so the view is never something an operator can promise.