Another Swiss Village Evacuated Under Threat of Rockslide

About 100 residents of the remote Swiss village of Brienz/Brinzauls have been ordered to evacuate as authorities warn that the massive rock face looming above the community has begun to shift.

Located about 25 miles south of Davos, Brienz/Brinzauls sits tucked into a high alpine valley in the Albula region, home to a tight-knit population largely made up of farmers. According to Swiss officials, the rock mass perched above the village has “accelerated so rapidly that it threatens to collapse,” prompting the urgent evacuation.

This isn’t the first time the centuries-old village faced rockslides. In June 2023, the entire population was evacuated just days before millions of cubic meters of rock tore loose from the mountain and ripped into the valley. The debris narrowly missed the village.

Now, updated monitoring data has revealed that the same unstable rock mass is once again shifting—faster than ever before. Swiss geologists tracking the movement sounded the alarm, giving locals little choice but to pack up and leave once more.

The evacuation comes on the heels of last month's massive glacier collapse that all but destroyed the nearby Swiss village of Blatten. That slide, triggered by a partial glacier collapse that dragged rock and debris down the mountain, killed one man and caused an estimated 320 million Swiss francs (approximately $393 million) in damage. 

With climate change accelerating glacial melt and destabilizing once-frozen terrain, events like these are becoming more common. Swiss glaciers have lost half their volume in the last 85 years, and the effects are felt acutely in places like Brienz/Brinzauls. For now, villagers are once again displaced, watching and waiting to see if their village can survive another brush with destruction.