The alpine village that became an online sensation

How did Facebook make a small Swiss mountain village famous around the world? (SRF/swissinfo.ch)

Until three years ago, Obermutten in canton Graubünden was visited by the occasional hiker and was pretty much unknown to the rest of the world. The village, which lies at 1,860 metres above sea level on the slopes of the Albula valley in eastern Switzerland, has only 82 inhabitants but has appeared on news programmes in more than 20 countries.

The image of the idyllic village changed after a Facebook pageExternal link was created, in which Obermutten’s mayor promised that every “like” to the page would be rewarded with the user’s profile picture being posted on the community’s official notice board.

The response to the initiative was so overwhelming that it became necessary to hang the profile pictures on a barn and later to open a dedicated place for them: Obermutten’s International Museum of Friendship.