Jungfrau 4158m – The first ascent on the 3rd of August 1811

03 August at Wengen, Festival on the occasion of the bicentenary

Dear guests

We invite you to celebrate the bicentenary of the “first ascent of the Jungfrau” with us, this summer:

The Jungfrau at 4158m is the third highest mountain of the Bernese Alps, dominating the famous trilogy “Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau”. The Jungfrau was the first mountain over 4’000 metres in the Swiss Alps that humans climbed, on the 3rd of August 1811: Johann Rudolf Meyer and his brother Hieronymus as well as the two chamois hunters from the Valais, Alois Volker and Joseph Bortis reached the peak over the Jungfrau glacier and the Rottalsattel (normal route nowadays). The following year, 1812, Volker and Bortis repeated the tour together with Gottlieb Meyer, Johann Rudolf’s son.
Between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 20th century, no other mountain in the world has inspired travelers and climbers to the creation of paintings and literature to such an extent as the “Goddess”, “sacred priest” and “great titan” of the Bernese Oberland. Also, the drama “Manfred” (1817) by the English George Byron, with its scene at the foot of the Jungfrau, advertised Switzerland just as much as did “Wilhelm Tell” by Schiller. Last but not least, the Jungfrau belongs to the Unesco World Heritage “Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn”, as the first alpine domain taken up on this prestigious list (since the 13th of December 2001). (Club Jungfrau 4000 plus)