The Swiss canton of St. Gallen, looking to reverse declining tourism numbers, is about to create a new theme park, based on the character of Heidi from the children’s sentimental 19th-century novel by Johanna Spyri.
The interactive park will, according to canton officials, allow children to ‘be’ Heidi, herding goats, making a wooden stool, and meeting costumed “locals” in the 19th-century setting. It will also recreate her experience as a child servant in a rich Frankfurt household.
There’s already a “Heidi Village,” or Heididorf 30 km away in Maienfeld, the town whose name Spyri used as Heidi’s home, but the St. Gallen officials say that “the new project will not represent any competition to the existing Heididorf but will complement it.”
Heidi Alperlebnis (Heidi Alpine Experience) will be built on a mountainside overlooking Lake Walen, and will be accessed through the village of Tannenboden, which will be redeveloped with a new cable car, underground parking, and hotels…which means that by the time the park opens in 2020, it will never again look like the picture above.
Photo: Gurkan Sengun/Wikimedia
