[Brig has been a settlement since the stone age. It was first mentioned in 1215. Its strategic location in the Rhone Valley at the northern end of the Simplon Pass and the southern end of the Lötschberg Pass made it a trading centre.

Brig (2244 feet a/s), a delightfully old-fashioned town, is
presently reached. Its shining metal cupolas give the town a somewhat oriental character. Among the noteworthy sights of Brig is the picturesque old chateau of the Stockalper family, with square towers, large courtyardand wide arch-ways. This formidable residence was built in 1642 by Kaspar Stockalper, a wealthy and influential man, who in those days dominated the trade over the Simplon, protecting the road with 70 guardsmen. ]

***********************************

While, after the Thirty Years' War, the European exchange market was going through a down period, Kaspar Stockalper managed to restore the Simplon Pass to its place of importance in Europe. A great merchant and contractor, he turned the Alpine pass to profit.

After training as a notary, Kaspar Stockalper de la Tour (1609 - 1691) became, in 1634, a trader and carrier. He quickly built up a fortune through his business, obtaining all the commercial monopolies on the Simplon route, the postal concession between Milan and the Low Countries, and the customs rights at Gondo. To make his business more profitable and secure, he improved the road over the Simplon: the road, the bridges and the posting stages were repaired; a new hospice was built; but Kaspar Stockalper did not stop there. Once he had set up the carriage business he also began to work mines: the iron mines of Grund-Ganter, the gold mines of Gondo, as well as various copper and lead works became his property.

The trader's fame lasted about thirty years, during which he became the richest man in the country. The Castle of the Three Kings, which he had built at Brig, reflects his power. It was a luxury residence, a veritable mountain palace, and the largest civil structure of the Baroque period in Switzerland. The founding of the College of Brig, which was put in the hands of the Jesuits, the founding of the Ursulines Convent,and the restoration of the church of Glis also reflect both his wealth and his wish to please the bishop, who also held the temporal power. After obtaining many honours - he was three times appointed Grand Bailiff, the highest magistrate's appointment in Valais - he ended by arousing the jealousy of his contemporaries and thus causing his own downfall.

*******************************
Lanes off the southeast corner of the square lead along Alte Simplonstrasse past many fine patrician townhouses dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the Schloss Stockalper. This grandiose Italianate palace – for much of its life the largest private residence in Switzerland – dominates the otherwise simple town. It was completed in 1678 to serve as the home of Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper, a merchant from Brig who first made a mint controlling the trade in silk over the Simplon Pass to Lyon, moved on to make another killing organizing mail transport between Milan and Geneva, and finally gained the monopoly in trading salt over the pass. At the height of his power, he was elected President of the Grand Council of Valais, the highest political office in the region. By 1658 he was wealthy enough to start building his own palace in Brig, the town through which all his goods passed, and which he himself had largely had built from scratch. After twenty years or more, it seems Stockalper finally got too big for his boots: his political colleagues plotted together to have him removed from office, and he was sent into exile into Domodossola, forfeiting part of his fortune on the way. Only six years later was he permitted to return to Brig, where he died a few years later at the grand old age of 82.