Mürren

Mürren is first mentioned in 1257 as Mons Murren (Mount Murren). It was probably an alpine pasture until the settlement of immigrants from Lötschental shortly after 1300.

The first hotel was built in 1857 by Mürren's farming cooperative, the Bäuert. Before the opening of the Lauterbrunnen–Mürren Mountain Railway in 1891, guests could reach Mürren only by means of mule traffic. Nevertheless, the quickly growing resort already had 310 hotel beds around 1888. Up to World War I, mainly British tourists came to Mürren. An Anglican church was erected for them as early as 1878.^[1]

Winter sports have been an important part of Mürren's history since the first British winter tourists arrived in 1911. During the First World War wounded prisoners of war stayed here pending repatriation and played a role in developing winter sports. In 1924, the Kandahar Ski Club was set up by Sir Arnold Lunn (whose statue stands outside the rail station) and eight other British skiers. The club takes its name from the Roberts of Kandahar Challenge Cup, first run in 1911. This, the world's senior challenge cup for downhill ski-racing, was presented by Lord Roberts, who won the Battle of Kandahar^[2] in the Second Anglo-Afghan War.

Mürren is situated in the canton of Bern, in the district of Interlaken-Oberhasli and belongs to the municipality of Lauterbrunnen, together with the villages of Wengen, Isenfluh, Gimmelwald and Stechelberg.

The village is car-free. Mürren station is the terminus of the Bergbahn Lauterbrunnen-Mürren, which consists of a cable car and a connecting narrow gauge railway and connects Mürren to Lauterbrunnen railway station.

A series of four cable cars, known as the Luftseilbahn Stechelberg-Mürren-Schilthorn (LSMS), provides transportation from Mürren downhill to Gimmelwald and Stechelberg, and uphill to the summit of the Schilthorn and the revolving restaurant Piz Gloria. The Mürren station for these cable cars is approximately 800 metres (2600 ft) south-west of the railway station at the other end of Mürren.

In December of 2024 a new cable car segment opened connecting Mürren directly to Stechelberg as part of a large rehabilitation project of the entire Stechelberg - Mürren - Schilthorn cable car system. It replaced an older direct cable car that was primarily only used to transport freight. The new direct cable car transports both passengers and freight. The project also replaced the Mürren to Birg and Birg to Schilthorn cable cars with new wind resistant cable cars of the Funifor design. The original Stechelberg - Gimmelwald and Gimmelwald - Mürren Von Roll cable cars remain in service to provide transportation access to Gimmelwald and as an alternate route to Stechelberg.

Mürren is also the lower terminus of the Allmendhubelbahn, a funicular.

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  The cable car to Schilthorn
• 
  Mürren Railway Station during winter
• 
  The Allmendhubelbahn funicular

In the ski area, there are a total of 52 kilometres (32 mi) of ski runs with 14 ski lifts (six cable cars, seven chair lifts, three railways, and two drag lifts). There is also off-piste skiing, but guiding is often needed and should be used.

Within the village there is a large sports center with a 25m swimming pool, sports hall, fitness room, café, information centre and other facilities. There is a large skating rink which is sometimes used for curling competitions as well as a specific curling rink that in the summer is a tennis court. The ice rink is turned into a mini-golf course during the summer months. In the summer, there are also tennis courts near the sports chalet, located at 1650 metres (5410 ft) above sea level, they are some of the highest altitude tennis courts in the world.^[3]

There are several hiking trails and mountain bike routes.^[4] The nearby Mürrenbach Falls, Switzerland's highest waterfall, are a popular tourist attraction.

There are many hotels in Mürren, including the Hotel Alpenblick, Hotel Alpenruh, Alpina, Hotel Bellevue, Hotel Blumental, Hotel Edelweiss, Hotel Eiger, Eiger Guesthouse, Hotel Jungfrau, Hotel Regina and Sportschalet.

In 1928, the Inferno Race was set up, and continues to this day. The International Inferno Race, comprising cross-country, giant slalom, and downhill races, is the longest (15.8 km / 9.8 mi) and largest amateur ski race in the world, with a limit of 1800 participants. It is held in January. The fastest entrants complete the 15.8 km from the Schilthorn to Lauterbrunnen in only 15 minutes.^{[5][citation needed]}

• 
  Street in Mürren
• 
  Street in Mürren in winter
• 
  Aerial view by Eduard Spelterini, between 1893 and 1924

The top station of the Schilthorn cable car (Piz Gloria) was a principal filming location for the James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service, released in 1969, in which fictional spy James Bond (George Lazenby) made his escape from the headquarters of Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas) and fled four of Blofeld's henchmen in a car driven by his girlfriend Tracy (Diana Rigg).

In November 2025, Mürren was featured in an article of the BBC.^[6]