Einsiedeln

Einsiedeln is a municipality and district in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland, known above all for the Benedictine Einsiedeln Abbey, established in the 10th century. Tradition links the place to St. Meinrad, a hermit who is said to have lived on the slopes of Mount Etzel from 835 until his death in 861; a later hermit, Eberhard, built the first monastery, begun around 934. The settlement itself is first mentioned in 1073, and for two centuries the villagers of the abbey lands quarrelled with Schwyz over grazing land near the Mythen mountains. The town lies in the valley of the Alp river on a plateau at about 880 metres above sea level, a few kilometres from the Lake of Zurich and the artificial Sihlsee. It has a total area of 99.1 square kilometres and had 16,247 inhabitants at the end of 2020.