Plot of land in the hamlet of Bodmen, Saas-Grund

Details

An attractive plot of land in the picturesque and historic hamlet of Bodmen.

In the picturesque hamlet of Bodmen, south of Saas-Grund, we are selling a well-proportioned plot of land suitable for the construction of a detached house or a block of flats. There is a bus stop nearby. All three ski resorts can be reached quickly by electric shuttle bus. 

🏔️ Origins and early settlement
The Saas Valley itself has been inhabited since the Bronze Age (as evidenced by archaeological finds such as cup-marked stones).
The actual permanent settlement took place in the Middle Ages, brought about by immigrants from the Visp area.
The settlement structure traditionally consisted of scattered hamlets (e.g. Unter dem Berg, Tamatten, and indeed Bodmen), which were predominantly agricultural.
👉 The name ‘Bodmen’ (in the Valais dialect) typically refers to the flatter, arable land at the bottom of the valley – in other words, ideal land for farming.

🏡 Bodmen as a historic settlement
The settlement of Bodmen has existed for several centuries.
A preserved larch-timber house bears the date 1773, which is concrete evidence of building activity in the 18th century.
Like many hamlets in the Saas Valley, Bodmen was originally a small, scattered farming settlement, consisting of dwellings, stables and haylofts.

⛪ Society and life in the valley
Until the late Middle Ages, the entire Saas Valley formed a single entity, which was divided into several municipalities in 1392.
Community life was governed by so-called farmers’ guilds (15th–18th centuries), which organised the use of mountain pastures, water and land.
For a long time, the population lived largely self-sufficiently from agriculture and alpine farming.

🍽️ Changes in the 19th and 20th centuries
With the rise of mountaineering and tourism in the 19th century, the first guesthouses began to appear in the valley.
In Bodmen itself, a café opened around 1909 (Café Bodmen), which later changed hands several times.
A small cultural and historical curiosity:
👉 It was here that the first raclette dishes in the Saas Valley were served around 1929.

🚧 Development and modernisation
The major change came with the construction of roads into the Saas Valley (1929–1938), which made the Saas-Grund and its hamlets more accessible.
Following this, the region developed increasingly as a tourist destination, whilst traditional farming declined.

🌲 Bodmen today (historically evolved image)
Today, Bodmen is:
a quiet hamlet between Saas-Grund and Saas-Fee,
characterised by old Valaisan timber-framed buildings,
nestled amidst woodland and meadows,
partly used for tourism (restaurants, hiking trails).

🧭 Conclusion
Bodmen is not a “village with its own history” in the traditional sense, but rather a typical historic Valaisan hamlet that:
have their origins in agricultural use,
have been inhabited for centuries,
are closely intertwined with the development of Saas-Grund and the entire Saas Valley,
were later shaped by tourism, without ever completely losing their original character.