Unterjoch, Allgäu, Germany

Unterjoch is a village in the district of Bad Hindelang with a population of about 350 inhabitants, situated at an altitude of 1013 m above sea level and is a popular tourist destination thanks to the Alpine scenery, well defined bike and walking routes and easy accesibility. Whilst visiting the area, I stayed at Camping Jungholz which is just across the border in Austria.

The village is dominated by the Sorgschrofen, a 1635-meter-high mountain. It is the point where two German and two Austrian borders meet at what is called a quadripoint with Germany to the west and east and Austria to the north and south. This effectively means that the Austrian territory of Jungholz to the north of the mountain is an exclave.

The Sorgschrofen is popular as a hiking mountain and one can start from Unterjoch over the Zinken, which lies 265 meters southwest of the main peak. The crossing of the ridge to the main summit is reserved only to practiced mountain hikers and there are warnings that one can easily slip and fall. The route is partly secured by ropes but this is not the case everywhere. The trail can be frozen until well into spring and therefore is a route which is only for very experienced hikers.

The first evidence of the existence of Unterjoch dates back to 1471. The village was close to the Oberjoch Pass over the Alps which was an important trade route for salt - and for smuggling the said material. As many as 100 waggons of salt could pass through the pass each day. However this trade ceased in 1823 because of the construction of a new road although in time this new road had the benefit of stimulating tourism.

The tallest building in the village is the parish church of the Holy Trinity, a plastered building with a saddle roof. It has a late-Gothic roof construction on the eastern side, but its core is baroque. A chapel existed around 1680 and the altar is from 1673. In 1820 it was expanded by a building on the west side of the church. In 1870 sacristy and tower were rebuilt. In 1910 the building was extended to the west. The plastered ceiling has a flat, cobblestone barrel vault. In the church there is a fresco with the Holy Family. It was painted by J. Huwyler, who in 1911 removed the neo-gothic wall decorations present until that time. In the choir are the allegories of faith, hope and love, works by Franz Osterried from 1843. On the high altar is a carved group of the Holy Trinity by Johann Georg Bschorer. The pulpit dates from 1843 and is decorated with paintings by the evangelists. The first version of these paintings was by Johann Baptist Müller, but it was replaced by paintings by Huwyler during the reconstruction in 1911. The marble baptismal font decorated with the pigeon of the holy spirit dates to 1846. The church has three bells.

At Steineberg, two late 19th-century sculptures recall the sorrows of an inhabitant for his descendants and the Annakapelle of 1877.

In the district of Krummenbach there is the Trinity Chapel of 1799, built in thanks to the fact that the town had been spared from plundering Napoleonic troops. One of the bells, which belonged to the Unterjoch parish church, is in this chapel. It has a neo-gothic altar; The two side figures - a John the Baptist and a holy Ulrich - date from the middle of the 15th century. A votive picture of 1680 shows the Coronation of Mary in combination with a cow herd.

The Marienkapelle at the Hotzen from the year 1875 goes back to a vow by a farmer who wanted surviving children.

Every winter there is an international dog-sledding event in Unterjoch.