ENGELBERG, Alpine village and valley in central Switzer land, much frequented by visitors in summer and winter. It is 14 m. by electric railway from Stansstad, on the Lake of Lucerne. Pop. 2,491, practically all German-speaking and Roman ists. The village (3,343 ft.) is shut in on all sides by lofty moun tains (the highest is the Titlis, 10,627 ft. in the south-east), so that it is often hot in summer. It communicates by the Surenen pass (7,563 ft.) with Wassen, on the St. Gotthard railway, and by the Joch pass (7,267 ft.) past the favourite summer resort of the Engstlen Alp (6,034 ft.), with Meiringen in the Bernese Oberland. The village has clustered round the great Benedictine monastery which gives its name to the valley, from the legend that its site was fixed by angels ("Mons Angelorum"). The monas tery, founded about 1120 still survives, though the buildings date only from the 18th century. Its library suffered much at the hands of the French in 1798. From 1462 onwards it was under the pro tectorate of Lucerne, Schwyz, Unterwalden and Uri. In 1798 the abbot lost his temporal powers, and his domains were annexed to the Obwalden division of Unterwalden, but in 1803 were trans ferred to the Nidwalden division. In 1816 the valley was again transferred to Obwalden, part of which it still forms. As the pas tures forming the upper portion of the Engelberg valley have for ages belonged to Uri, the actual valley itself is politically iso lated between Uri and Obwalden.