Brig.

Brig lies in the Upper Valais, where the Rhône valley narrows and begins its climb toward the Simplon Pass. The town's skyline is marked by the onion domes of Stockalper Palace, a vast baroque residence built in the seventeenth century by the merchant Kaspar Stockalper, who built his fortune on trade across the pass. Arcaded courtyards and frescoed ceilings surround a central tower, with gardens opening beyond its walls.

The old town's narrow lanes wind between stone houses toward quiet squares. Vineyards and orchards spread across the valley floor below, while forested slopes rise steeply on both sides, giving way higher up to bare rock and the glaciers of the Bernese Alps.

Brig lies deep in the German-speaking Upper Valais, where the everyday language is German, spoken in the region's own dialect — a reminder of the town's position at a crossing point between cultures as much as between valleys.