A walk in the NW corner of Switzerland: Gempen Tower and a Roman Temple

Sunday April 25, 2021 -- Sometimes we take hiking suggestions out of a magazine we subscribe to, and there was a description of a farm near the city of Basel where 1200 cherry trees (some over 150 years old) blossom like huge fields of snow. The hiking suggestion included a look-out tower and a fortress ruins, and there was the promise of good weather in this northwest corner of Switzerland, where we otherwise rarely go.

So we made our way to Gempen in Canton Solothurn, and the first shock we got was when we changed from the train to the bus in the city of Dornach: The bus was jam-packed full and had to leave some people behind! We should have realized that any excursion near a major city means that all those city people seek out their own countryside! Luckily it was only a 15-minute bus ride. Most of the people got off where we did, and I was a bit worried that they all wanted to go up the Gempen tower, but we waited till the crowd dispersed, and as it turns out, you had to pay 1 SFr. to go up the tower, which meant we were basically alone up there!

The view from this 28m-high metal tower on the cliffs called Schartenflue is almost 360 degrees, stretching from the Black Forest to the North, over the city of Basel, into France to the West, and apparently to the Alps in the South, but those were not visible due to the hazy air....

Next stop was the cherry orchard, a big disappointment as the vantage point afforded little view of the trees, which were either already finished blooming (highly likely) or whose blossoms had turned brown due to the recent cold spells we had. Third point of interest -- the old Schauenburg ruins...were also disappointing: Overgrown with weeds, and lots of people up there making smoky campfires. Apparently the original fortress (1275) was destroyed in the Basel earthquake of 1356, and in the past 100 years constantly dug around in by treasure hunters.

Next point of interest: A viewpoint high up on top of the next set of cliffs called Schauenflue was worth a detour. Fantastic view, and the remains of what was apparently a temple built by the Romans who also thought the view was worthy. From this vantage point we spied another fortress ruins, which we also walked to, but could not visit as it is currently undergoing restoration.

Somewhere along the way we crossed over from Canton Solothurn to Canton Baselland, and even though the end-city of Frenkendorf didn't have much to offer, the landscape otherwise was pretty, especially in the forests where the various spring greens are a pleasure to look at.

In the Nortwest part of Switzerland, the houses and churches (Protestant instead of Catholic) are totally different again than what we normally encounter. It is a pleasure to travel through Switzerland and see all these different styles.

Many of the buildings consisted of the farmhouse with adjoining stables. In the meantime, the stable sections have often been renovated into living quarters

A 30-minute walk from the bus stop in Gempen along the trail no.32 "Via Surprise" takes us to the Gempen Tower at the top of the Schartenflue cliffs, and to the popular restaurant of the same name.

The 32m-high Gempen Tower. We were afraid there would be many people on it, but the people were more interested in the newly-opened restaurant terrace

View from the Schartenflue cliffs westward toward Dornach from where we came up by bus. Interesting fact: Here where we stand is in a small northern "finger" of Canton Solothurn, which includes the small community of Dornach below. All around to the West, North and East are the communities of Canton Baselland, which form a kind of megalopolis with the city of Basel Stadt.

There are five levels of spiral staircase that we have to climb to get to the top viewing platform on the Gempen Tower

The spiral staircase was very narrow!

The view from the top of the tower toward the communities in Baselland, Basel City, France, and the Black Forest in Germany

Below us is a farm called "Im Baumgarten" (in the Tree Garden) with some flowering cherry trees. But even from here you can see they are more "brown" than "white".

A motorcycle group showed up, because the winding streets up to here are fun to drive. People are glad that the restaurant terraces are finally open

The motorcycle group were standing very close to the edge of the vertical drop!

It cost 1 SFr. to go up the tower (luckily we had a couple of those coins!). The turnstyle "cage" was also quite narrow, even I had a problem squeezing through, let alone Urs who is much bigger!

From the Gempen Tower, the next goal is "Stollenhäuser", where we expect to see 1200 cherry trees in bloom

We started our 3-hour and 11-km hike in Gempen, walked to the tower in Schartenflue, then to the fortress ruins at Alt Schauenburg (via the cherry orchard at Stollenhäuser), and then on to Frenkendorf.

The cherry orchard at Stollenhäuser was a bit of a disappointment, because the land slopes downhill and from this vantage point you don't see a lot of the supposedly 1200 trees, some of which are over 150 years old. Either the blossoms are practically over (highly likely) or they are damaged by the many frosts we had this spring.

What I mostly love about walking in the forests at this time of year is the lush green floor covering of bear garlic. And it smells so good! These will totally disappear back into the ground in a few weeks

I love the dark green of the bear garlic, and the pale greens of the newly-emerged leaves in the beech forests.

Walking through the beech forests in spring means we get lots of sunlight. Along this stretch we have crossed from Canton Solothurn to Canton Baselland.

This is the ruins of the fortress "Alt Schauenburg", an archeological monument of Canton Baselland. Built in 1275, it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1356 and further plundered by "treasure hunters" in the last century.

A quick look around the ruins of Alt Schauenburg. We didn't stay long because there were quite a lot of people up here making a camp-fire for a Sunday barbeque.

From the fortress ruins, a view to the lovely rolling hills of Canton Baselland in the East, all the way to the Aargau

I got a kick out of this: Generally, on high mountain tops there is a box with a "guest book" in it that you can sign that you have scaled the mountain successfully! I usually expect this on peaks or crossings over 1500m. This one is 666m high and did not require a lot of exertion to get to!

At the look-out point on the Schauenburgflue, the Romans had apparently built a temple, of which these walls are the remains.

Sitting on the wall of an old Roman temple (!) with a view of the ruins of the fortress Neu Schauenburg below

After descending from the Schauenburgflue, we took a little detour to the ruins of "Neu Schauenburg" but were disappointed that there was no access due to restoration efforts. It is privately-owned anyway, so probably no access allowed. This fortress was built in the 12th Century and also destroyed in the earthquake of 1356, but later rebuilt and then abandoned.

Heading back to the trail from our detour we get to see where we had been up there on the Schauenburgflue where the Roman Temple once stood.

Last stretch toward Frenkendorf heading East. This view, though, is to the North, across the city of Pratteln to the Rhine River and Kaiser Augst, an original Roman settlement. Beyond that is Germany.

As we head East, we admire these very pretty farms with flowering cherry trees. This hillside is in Canton Baselland, and on the other side is Canton Solothurn.