Auslikon is a village ('' :de:Aussenwacht'') of the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of Pfäffikon in the canton of

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The village occupies a gently shelving

terrace Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk a ...

on the eastern shore of

Pfäffikersee Pfäffikersee (or ''Lake Pfäffikon'') is a lake in the canton of Zürich, Switzerland, near the town of Pfäffikon, Zurich, Pfäffikon. It is 2.5 km long and 1.3 km wide at the middle. The lake was created in the last ice age when a mor ...

at about 567 m above sea level, approximately 2 km southwest of Pfäffikon and 25 km from central

. Since 1948, both the shoreline and adjoining Ried have been protected under cantonal conservation orders, preserving the natural reedbeds and

fen A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetland along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires ...

relics that encircle the lake. While historically a farming community with medieval row-farm origins, Auslikon today is primarily oriented toward recreation, featuring a popular

lido Lido may refer to: Geography * Lido (Belgrade), a river beach on the Danube in Belgrade, Serbia * Venice Lido, an 11-kilometre-long barrier island in the Venetian Lagoon, Venice, Italy * Ruislip Lido, a reservoir and artificial beach in Ruisl ...

nature trail An educational trail (or sometimes educational path), nature trail or nature walk is a specially developed hiking trail or footpath that runs through the countryside, along which there are marked stations or stops next to points of natural scienc ...

s, and connections to nearby

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and

ornithological Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

sites.

Geography

Auslikon occupies a gently shelving terrace on the eastern shore of the Pfäffikersee at about 567 m above sea level, 2 km south-west of the district capital Pfäffikon and 25 km from central Zürich. Although administratively a hamlet of Pfäffikon, it retains its own postcode (8331) and counted roughly 350 inhabitants in 2023, which corresponds to roughly 100 inhabitants per square kilometre; most live in a ribbon of lake-side cottages threaded between orchard strips and smallholdings. The settlement forms the south-eastern tip of a chain of protected reedbeds and

relics encircling the lake; since 1948 both the shoreline and the adjoining Ried have been safeguarded under a cantonal conservation order that prohibits building beyond the existing village fringe. A lakeside footpath links Auslikon with the

neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

pile-dwellings at

Irgenhausen Irgenhausen is a village ( Aussenwacht) of the municipality of Pfäffikon in the canton of Zurich in Switzerland. Geography Irgenhausen is located in the district of Pfäffikon in the Zürcher Oberland on the eastern shore of the Pfäffike ...

in the north and the

observation towers near

Seegräben Seegräben is a village and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Hinwil (district), Hinwil in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zurich (canton), Zürich in Switzerland. Besides the village of Seegräben itself, the m ...

in the south.

History

First recorded around 1310 as "Uslikon", the hamlet was then part of the Greifensee bailiwick held jointly by the

Rapperswil Rapperswil (Swiss German: or ;Andres Kristol, ''Rapperswil SG (See)'' in: ''Dictionnaire toponymique des communes suisses – Lexikon der schweizerischen Gemeindenamen – Dizionario toponomastico dei comuni svizzeri (DTS, LSG)'', Centre de dial ...

counts and the Breitenlandenberg family;

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

acquired the low-court rights in 1402 and retained them until the Helvetic upheavals of 1798. Auslikon’s linear plan still betrays its mediaeval row-farm (flarz) origins, when dairy-cum- arable plots were strung out along the lakeside road with communal

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

behind. A single-room schoolhouse was erected in 1811, replacing lessons that had been held in a farmhouse parlour. In 1928 the hamlet, together with Ober- and Unter-Balm, relinquished its remaining civic autonomy and joined the modern political municipality of Pfäffikon.

Recreation and modern economy

Recreation now dominates the local economy. The Strandbad Auslikon, developed by the Wetzikon tourist board in 1927 and purchased by that municipality in 1964, offers a 150-m

shingle beach A shingle beach, also known as either a cobble beach or gravel beach, is a commonly narrow beach that is composed of coarse, loose, well-rounded, and waterworn gravel, called ''shingle''. The gravel (shingle) typically consists of smooth, sphero ...

, playgrounds and SUP hire; its adjacent 65-pitch campsite is scheduled for closure after 2023 because it lies inside the marsh core zone and no longer meets the mobility-and-environment guidelines for the lake basin. Auslikon also became home to the landscape painter Arnold W. Brunner (1909–1972), whose canvases of lowland

moors The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a s ...

and glacial hillsides have shaped popular imagery of the Zürcher Oberland.

Points of interest

In Auslikon there is a popular

and a camping site, within the

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

on the

lake shore.Strandbad Auslikon

References

External links

Official website of the municipality of Pfäffikon (ZH)

Dorfverein Auslike-Balm
{{authority control Villages in the canton of Zürich Pfäffikon, Zürich Pfäffikersee