CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Hospental

municipality in the canton of Uri in Switzerland

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ65681 ↗
Source-derived summary

Hospental (locally Oschpidall) is a village and a municipality in the middle of the Alpine valley called Urseren in the canton of Uri in Switzerland.

History

Hospental is first mentioned in 1285 as Hospenthal. In 1499 it was mentioned under its Latin name as Hospicium, and in 1616 as Spithal.

Geography

The municipality is located in the valley called Urseren at the intersection of the routes over the Furka Pass and the route over the Gotthard Pass. It consists of the linear village of Hospental and the hamlet of Zumdorf.

The Gotthardreuss runs through the village and forms together with the Furkareuss, traversing the village at its north border, the beginning of the Reuss.

Hospental has an area, as of 2006, of 35 km2 (14 sq mi). Of this area, 32.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 9.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.4% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (56.6%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). In the 1993/97 land survey, 0.8% of the total land area was heavily forested, while 8.9% is covered in small trees and shrubbery.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Hospental” as municipality in the canton of Uri in Switzerland. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Hospental, municipality and canton.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1285, 1499, 1616, 2006—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Hospental, municipality and canton providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Hospental”, the useful work is to connect “municipality in the canton of Uri in Switzerland” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q65681. VIAF identifies the subject as 245429496. Authority coordinates are 46.621, 8.570. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1285, 1499, 1616 and 2006.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Hospental”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Hospental primary sources, Hospental archive and Hospental research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Hospental”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Hospental” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.