Point of interest
Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch

Achistein

Outside Innertkirchen, directly at the Grimsel pass road, a striking rock block stands vertically into the air. The giant rock is called Achistein. It may result from a rockslide, which occurred centuries ago at the east of the village at the Blattenstock. According to a legend, a woman was working in her garden when the stone thundered down and drilled next to her in the ground. The poor woman should have been so frightened that she could say anything else from this moment than "Ach, Ach, Ach" - which is said to have given the name to the stone. The Achistein attracted early attention by traveling artists. A colored aquatint by Gabriel Lory son, engraved by J. Hürlimann in 1822 is well known. Lory took artistic freedom, to present the boulder significantly more inclined, then it was in reality, might be to increase the dramatic effect.