Lungern is a municipality in the canton of Obwalden in Switzerland. It encompasses Lake Lungern and, besides the village of Lungern, the settlements of Bürglen, Kaiserstuhl and Obsee. Geography The village of Lungern lies above sea level in the highest part of the canton of Obwalden, on the eastern shore of the Lake of Lungern and at the foot of the Brünig Pass. It is the highest village of the Sarneraa-Valley, in a basin open only to the north and surrounded on all other sides by steep and woody inclinations and rocks. To the south-west the municipality extends to the Brünig Pass. On its north-western side, the municipal boundary is set by the Wilerhorn and Höch Gumme mountains, and includes the whole of the Lake of Lungern. To the east, the boundary reaches as far as the Hochstollen and Chingstuel mountains, and includes the Güpfi mountain and part of the Kleine Melchtal valley. Besides the village of Lungern, the municipality includes the settlements of Kaiserstuhl and Bürglen that lie at the northern end of the lake, and Obsee on the south-western end of the lake. The municipal district of Lungern has an area of , of which are meadow and tilled land, are pastureland, are wooded and the remaining are unproductive. History The first legal proof of Lungern's existence is contained in a tax register for the diocese of the bishop of Konstanz in Germany dating from the year 1275. It is mentioned as Lutigern and also as de Lungern. In 1861 it became easier to reach the village with the construction of the old road over the Brünig pass. A quarter century later, in 1886, the first mail carriages came over the pass. However, this only lasted two years, in 1888 the railroad from Brienz to Alpnachstad (now part of Alpnach) opened. In 1887 the Eibach river flooded causing damage to the old village church. Six years later, in 1893, was the consecration of the neo-gothic style church. At the end of the 18th century the population of Lungern lowered the level of the lake, with great effort and over many years, in order to improve living conditions. The works created new land for agriculture, housing, and a sawmill. Within 80 years the hard-won land was lost to a new dam: in 1922 a company named CKW built and started running a power station located at the lake. Nowadays