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Stanserhorn

The local mountain, the Stanserhorn (6,227 ft) is also a tourist resort.It is accessible via one of the oldest mountain railways in Switzerland, the Stanserhornbahn (1893) and by cable car.The Stanserhornbahn was originally built as a rack and pinion railway with three separate sections.In 1970 the upper section was destroyed by a fire following a lightning strike.In 1975 the destroyed upper section and the middle section were replaced by an aerial cable car.At the peak of the Stanserhorn is the Rondorama, a revolving restaurant that was built in 2001.From the peak of the Stanserhorn on a clear day the view stretchs nearly 100 km and includes 10 Swiss lakes and the Black Forest of Germany.There is a short hiking trail around the peak of the Stanserhorn and a small population of Marmots are kept near the trail.

Convent St.Klara

The Convent St.Klara was founded by Katharina and Maria Gut in 1618.The buildings were built from 1621-25.In 1799 Heinrich Pestalozzi established his orphanage and school in the convent buildings.The convent church (built in 1723) is a simple structure with an ornate altar by Johann Ritz and a mystical altar painting by Johannes Brandenburg.The church was renovated in 1980.From the convent cemetery a path leads to the nearby Capucin monastery.

Dorfplatz

Following the fire in 1713, the village square (Dorfplatz) was fully rebuilt to its current unified appearance, in 1715 according to a plan by Josef Aebi and Ludwig Gassmann.The square now houses the Winkelried fountain and the sculpture Der Tod und das Madchen (Death and the Maiden).The Winkelried monument was carved from Carrarain marble in Rome and then shipped by boat, rail and horse team to Stans in 1865.The monument is in a Gothic Revival style and was carved by Ferdinand Schloth.Death and the Maiden was done by Rudolf Brem.

St.Peter Parish church

The Parish church St.Peter and Paul was built from 1641 until 1647 by the architect Jakob Berger.The church was constructed in an early-Baroque style, while the bell tower is an older Romanesque structure.The three nave Basilica was built south of the earlier church though the older bell tower dates from this previous church.The interior is decorated in white, gold and black.The simple interior ornamentation comes from Lombardy while there altar figures were done by Georg Allhelg.Next to the church is a two story chapel and ossuary for the nearby Capucin monastery.

Capucin monastery

A Capucin monastery was established in Stans in 1583 by Melchior Lussy, who had been sent to the Council of Trent.Initially there was resistance to the poverty, simple habits and beards of this order of Counter-Reformation monks.In 1777 the monks opened a Latin school, which was suppressed from 1798 until 1803 under the Helvetic Republic.The Kollegium St.Fidelis was built by the monks in 1895 and purchased by the canton in 1988.The monastery church was built in 1683 and renovated in 1980.In 1956 a memorial tablet to Melchoir Lussy was placed near the gate of the monastery.

Winkelriedhaus

A portion of the Winkelriedhaus (Winkelried House) was once home to the Winkelried family, though Arnold von Winkelried did not live in it.The oldest part of the structure dates from the middle of the 15th Century.The early house was an unusually tall and large half timbered building, which was known throughout much of central Switzerland.However, it was not owned by the Winkelrieds for very long; in 1541 the Lussy family purchased the house.Under Melchior Lussy the Gothic building was renovated over a period of 50 years into a much larger, Renaissance mansion.In 1766 the Landammann (Chief Magistrate) Jost Remigi Trachsler bought the house.During much of the second half of the 18th Century he had the Winkelriedhaus renovated and added a number of rococo frescos on the walls of the house.In 1815, the Kayser family bought the house, which they held until 1974 when it was given to the canton.It was restored from 1983 until 1991 and since then has been the home of the Museum für Kultur und Brauchtum.

Statue of Deschwanden

In the front garden of the former Nidwaldner Kantonalbank is a monument by the Swiss sculptor August Stanser Blaesi (1903–1979) that was erected in memory of the local artist Melchior Paul von Deschwanden (1811–1881) in the autumn of 1933.Deschwanden was one of the most influential and productive religious painters of his time trained in the Nazarene-style in Munich, Germany who sent paintings to hang in Roman Catholic churches as far as Annapolis, Maryland and Covington, Kentucky.Amongst his pupils were Adalbert Baggenstos (1863–1897) from Stans, and the Swiss-born American portrait painter Adolfo Muller-Ury, in whose arms he died in February 1881.

Salzmagazin

The Salzmagazin (lit.Salt storage house) was originally built to store grain and salt for the community in 1700.It has had many other uses since then including; a theater, a secondary school and finally a museum.The coat of arms of the builder and Landammann Nicolaus Keiser as well as two lions with the Nidwalden shield and two-header eagle are visible on the north gable.

May - August

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