Frutigen

Frutigen lies in an Alpine valley on routes toward the Gemmi and Lötschen passes. By 1260 the scattered farmers of the valley had formed an association with its own seal; in 1340 it negotiated peace with a neighbouring community in the Obersimmental. Frutigen obtained a local court in 1391. When Bern acquired the valley in 1400, its inhabitants secured freedom from taxes and labour owed to local lords, and the right to march under their own banner.

In 1528 the valley resisted Bern's introduction of the Reformation but accepted it after the rising at Interlaken was suppressed. The mountain trade supported warehouses and way stations, including one built at Kanderbrück in the sixteenth century. Farmers increasingly raised cattle for export and imported grain from the Swiss Plateau. Frutigen's church, rebuilt in 1421, was damaged by fire and rebuilt once more after 1727.