July 21, 2007 - 5 weekdays to go of the holiday

The Hermits Cottage

After some absence from blogging I am back again. I had a visit from a school friend from London for the last few days and we were catching up on the old times and went on a few local trips together. On Saturday morning, after a shopping trip covering the week-end needs we visited our local hermitage (they really do exist) in the nearby village of Rüttenen.



The hermitage is at the end of a deep ravine which has been carved through the rocky surface by a stream, at least I think so. It is very cool in Summer, when the heat wave affects everything else, due to the rocky surfaces on either side. It takes about 30-50 minutes to walk through, according to how fast you go, and the stream accompanies throughout the walk, sometimes wider and eventually is quite straight.

So, what does our hermit do? Well being on his own I suppose he does a fair bit of meditating. Otherwise he sells postcards to the people that stray past, if he is at home (sometimes he is seen shopping in the local supermarket). I think he is some type of monk according to the uniform he wears. He has quite a nice little cottage, although I have heard that the damp surroundings are not quite ideal if you happen to suffer from rheumatism.

There is also a very nice small church in the hermitage where you can book up to have your wedding. There are also many religious colourful statues of saints. The ravine is called the “St. Verena Schlucht” named after Verena who has some sort of connection to the whole thing. After reading up, it seems that she lived around 300 a.D. and had the gift of healing. She lived at the same time as the patron saints of our local town of Solothurn, St. Urs and St. Victor, who died as martyrs.

Apart from the small church, there is a sort of pilgrimage memorial carved out of the rock showing a niche on the righthand side with statues of men, and on the left, statues of women in white stone. In the centre there is an open grave with a statue, I think it represents Christ, but am not sure. We live in a catholic area, so it is all very much connected with the Catholic church. We spent some time looking around, climbing up and down the various steps. All in all it is very picturesque and if anyone happens to pass through Solothurn, it is worth paying a visit.

As all tourist attractions are, there are three restaurants available for refreshment. Unfortunately, Saturday morning is not the time to go, as they were all closed. We made our way to the nearby village and took our refreshment in the village restaurant before arriving home.