| Sankt Gallen | ||||||||||
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| St. Gallen Cathedral and the old city | ||||||||||
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| Population | 72,959 (Dec 2010)[1] | |||||||||
| - Density | 1,851 /km2 (4,795 /sq mi) | |||||||||
| Area | 39.39 km2 (15.21 sq mi)[2] | |||||||||
| Elevation | 675 m (2,215 ft) | |||||||||
| - Highest | 1074 m - Birt | |||||||||
| - Lowest | 496 m - Goldachtobel | |||||||||
| Postal code | 9000 | |||||||||
| SFOS number | 3203 | |||||||||
| Mayor (list) | Thomas Scheitlin (as of 2008) FDP/PRD | |||||||||
| Localities | West: Winkeln, Bruggen, Lachen; Centrum: Rosenberg, Riethüsli, St. Georgen, Innenstadt, St. Jakob, Linsenbühl-Dreilinden; Ost: Rotmonten, Langgass-Heiligkreuz, St. Fiden, Notkersegg, Neudorf-Industrie | |||||||||
| Surrounded by | Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach | |||||||||
| Twin towns | Liberec (Czech Republic) | |||||||||
| Website | www.stadt.sg.ch SFSO statistics |
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Sankt Gallen
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Map of Sankt Gallen
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St. Gallen ( or St. Gall; French: Saint-Gall; Italian: San Gallo; Romansh: Son Gagl) is the capital of the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. It evolved from the hermitage of Saint Gall, founded in the 7th century. Today, it is a large urban agglomeration (with around 160,000 inhabitants) and represents the center of eastern Switzerland. The town mainly relies on the service sector for its economic base.
The main tourist attraction is the Abbey of St. Gall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its renowned library contains books which date back to the 9th century.
The city has good transport links to the rest of the country and to neighbouring Germany and Austria. It also functions as the gate to the Appenzell Alps.
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St. Gallen is situated in the northeastern part of Switzerland in a valley about 700 meters (2,300 ft) above sea level. It is one of the highest cities in Switzerland and it often receives a lot of snow in winter. The city is pleasantly situated between Lake Constance and the mountains of the Appenzell Alps (with the Säntis as the highest peak at 2,502 meters (8,209 ft)). It therefore offers excellent recreation areas nearby.
As the city center is built on an unstable turf ground (thanks to its founder Gallus who was looking for a hermitage and not founding a city), all buildings on the valley floor must be built on piles. For example, the entire foundation of the train station and its plaza are based on hundreds of piles.
St.Gallen has an area, as of 2006[update], of 39.3 km2 (15.2 sq mi). Of this area, 31.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 28.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 38.4% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (1.7%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes).[3]
| Imperial City of St Gallen Reichsstadt Sankt Gallen |
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| State of the Holy Roman Empire (to 1499 / 1648) Swiss associate and protectorate (1454–1798) |
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| Capital | St. Gallen | |||
| Government | Republic | |||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | |||
| - City founded | ca 612 | |||
| - Gained Reichsfreiheit | 1401 | |||
| - Abbey became Swiss protectorate |
17 August 1451 |
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| - Associate & protect. of Swiss Confederacy |
13 June 1454 |
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| - Swabian War: de facto independent from HRE |
1499 |
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| - Peace of Westphalia: de jure independence |
1648 |
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| - Annexed to Helvetic Rep. canton of Säntis |
1798 |
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| - Helv. Rep. collapsed; city & abbey joined canton of St. Gallen |
1803 |
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The founding of St. Gallen is based on the Irish monk Gallus (ca 550–620 or 640), who built a hermitage by the river Steinach in 612.[4]
Around 720, one hundred years after Gallus's death, the Alemannian priest Othmar built an abbey and gave it the name Abbey of St. Gallen. In 926 Hungarian raiders attacked the abbey and surrounding town. Saint Wiborada, the first woman formally canonized by the Vatican,[5] reportedly saw a vision of the pending attack and warned the monks and citizens to flee. While the monks and the abbey treasure escaped, Wiborada chose to stay behind and was killed by the raiders.[6]
About 954 the monastery was surrounded by walls as a protection against the Saracens, and the town grew up around these walls. About 1205 the abbot became a prince of the church in the Holy Roman Empire.[4] In 1311 St. Gallen became a Free imperial city. By about 1353 the guilds, headed by the cloth-weavers guild, gained control of the civic government.[4] In 1415 the city bought its liberty from the German king Sigismund.[4]
In 1405 the Appenzell estates of the abbot successfully rebelled and in 1411 they became allies of the Old Swiss Confederation. A few months later the town of St. Gallen also became allies. They joined the "everlasting alliance" as full members of the Confederation in 1454 and in 1457 became completely free from the abbot.[4] However, in 1451 the abbey became an ally of Zurich, Lucerne, Schwyz and Glarus who were all members of the Confederation.
One of the earliest mayors of St. Gallen may be among the most colorful, Ulrich Varnbüler. Hans, the father of Ulrich, was prominent in city affairs in St. Gallen, Switzerland, in the early 15th century. Ulrich made his entry into public affairs in the early 1460s and gathered the various offices and honours that are available to a talented and ambitious man. He demonstrated fine qualities as field commander of the St. Gallen troops in the Burgundian Wars.
In the battle of Grandson in 1476 he and his troops were part of the advance units of the Confederation and took part in their famous attack. (A large painting of Ulrich returning triumphantly to a hero's welcome in St. Gallen can still be seen in St. Gallen).
After the war, he often represented St. Gallen at the various parliaments of the Confederation. In December 1480 he was offered the position of mayor for the first time. From that time on he served in several leading city positions and was considered the intellectual and political leader.
According to Vadian, who understood his contemporaries well, "Ulrich was a very intelligent, observant, and eloquent man who enjoyed the trust of the citizenry to a high degree."
His reputation among the Confederates was also substantial. However, in the late 1480s he became involved in a conflict that was to have serious negative consequences for him and for the city of which he was mayor.
In 1463 Ulrich Rösch had assumed the management of the abbey of St. Gall. He was an ambitious prelate, whose goal it was to raise the abbey by every possible means to prominence again following the losses of the Appenzell War.
His restless ambitions offended the political and material interests of his neighbours. When he arranged for the help of the pope and the emperor to carry out a plan for moving the abbey to Rorschach on Lake Constance, he encountered stiff resistance from the St. Gallen citizenry, other clerics, and the Appenzell nobility in the Rhine Valley who were concerned for their holdings.
At this point, Varnbüler entered the conflict against the prelate. He wanted to restrict the increase of power of the abbey and simultaneously increase the power of the town that had been restricted in its development.
For this purpose he established contact with farmers and Appenzell residents (led by the fanatical Hermann Schwendiner) who were seeking an opportunity to weaken the abbot.
Initially, he protested to the abbot and the representatives of the four sponsoring Confederate cantons (Zurich, Lucerne, Schwyz, and Glarus) against the construction of the new abbey in Rorschach. Then, on July 28, 1489 he had armed troops from St. Gallen and Appenzell destroy the buildings already under construction.[4]
When the abbot complained to the Confederates about the damages and demanded full compensation, Ulrich responded with a counter suit and in cooperation with Schwendiner rejected the arbitration efforts of the non-partisan Confederates.
He motivated the clerics from Wil to Rorschach to discard their loyalty to the abbey and spoke against the abbey at the meeting of the townspeople at Waldkirch, where the popular league was formed.
He was confident that the four sponsoring cantons would not intervene with force, due to the prevailing tensions between the Confederation and the Swabian League.
He was strengthened in his resolve by the fact that the people of St. Gallen elected him again to be the highest magistrate in 1490.
It transpired that Ulrich Varnbüler had made a serious miscalculation. In early 1490 the four cantons decided to carry out their duty to the abbey and to invade the St. Gallen canton with an armed force. The people of Appenzell and the local clerics submitted to this force without noteworthy resistance, while the city of St. Gallen braced itself for a fight to the finish.
However, when they learned that their compatriots had given up the fight, they lost confidence; the end result was that they concluded a peace pact that greatly restricted the city's powers and burdened the city with serious penalties and reparation payments.
Ulrich, overwhelmed by the responsibility for his political decisions, panicked in the face of the approaching enemy who wanted him apprehended. His life was in great danger, and he was forced to disguise himself as a messenger and escape from the city.
He made his way to Lindau and to Innsbruck and the court of King Maximilian. The victors confiscated those of his properties that lay outside of the city of St. Gallen and banned him from the confines of the Confederation.
Ulrich then appealed to the imperial court (as did Schwendiner, who had fled with him) for the return of his property.
The suit had the support of Friedrich II and Maximilian and the trial threatened to drag on for years. It was continued by Ulrich's sons Hans and Ulrich after his death in 1496, and eventually they regained their properties.
However, other political ramifications resulted from the court action, because the Confederation took ownership of the city of St. Gallen and rejected the inroads of the empire.
Thus, the conflict strengthened the relationship between the Confederation and the city of St. Gallen. On the other hand the matter increased the alienation between Switzerland and the German Holy Roman Empire, which would eventually mean a total separation as a result of the Swabian War.
Despite the unpropitious end of his career, Varnbüler is immortalized in a famous woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution's woodcut collection(q.v.).
Of Varnbüler's sons, the elder (Hans/Johann) became the mayor of Lindau. He is the patriarch of the Baden and Württemberg Varnbülers.
Starting in 1526 then-mayor and humanist Joachim von Watt (Vadian) introduced the reformation into the city of St. Gallen. The town converted to the new reformed religion while the Abbey remained Roman Catholic.
While iconoclastic riots forced the monks to flee the city and removed images from the city's churches, the fortified Abbey remained untouched.[7] The Abbey was to remain a Catholic stronghold in the Protestant city until 1803.
In 1798 Napoleon invaded the Old Swiss Confederation destroying the Ancien Régime. Under the Helvetic Republic both the abbey and the city lost their power and were combined with Appenzell into the Canton of Säntis.
The Helvetic Republic was widely unpopular in Switzerland and was overthrown a few years later in 1803. Following the Act of Mediation the city of St. Gallen became the capital of the Protestant Canton of St. Gallen.
One of the first acts of the new canton was to suppress the abbey.[7] The monks were driven out of the abbey with the last abbot dying in Muri in 1829.[8] In 1846 a rearrangement in the local dioceses made St. Gall a separate see, with the abbey church as its cathedral and a portion of the monastic buildings being designated the bishop's residence.
Gustav Adolf, former king of Sweden, spent the last years of his life in St. Gallen, and finally died there in 1837.
In the 15th century St. Gallen became successful in producing textiles. In 1714 the climax was reached with a yearly production of 38,000 pieces of cloth. The first depression happened in the middle of the 18th century caused by strong foreign competition and the early days of cotton production. But St. Gallen was able to catch up and an even more glamorous era arrived.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the first embroidery machines were developed in St. Gallen. In 1910 the embroidery production was the largest export branch (18 percent of the total export value) in Switzerland and more than half of the global production originated in St. Gallen. One fifth of the population in the eastern part of Switzerland lived from the textile industry. World War I and the Great Depression thereafter let the St. Gallen embroidery fall into a second large crisis. Only in the 1950s a did a slight recovery start in the textile industry. Nowadays, only a small textile industry had been able to survive in St. Gallen because of high specialization and the production of powerful embroidery machines. St. Gallen embroideries (e.g. by Akris) are still in great demand from fashion designers in Parisian Haute Couture.
St. Gallen is known for its business school, now named the University of St. Gallen (HSG). It was ranked as the top business school in Europe by Wirtschaftswoche, a weekly German business news magazine, and is highly ranked by several other sources.[9] Recently, HSG has been building a reputation for Executive Education, with its International MBA recognised as one of Europe's leading programmes,[10] and runs a PhD programme.[11] HSG is a focused university that offers degrees in business and management, economics, political science and international relations as well as business law.[12] It is comparatively small, with about 6,500 students enrolled at present, has both EQUIS and AACSB accredited, and is a member of CEMS (Community of European Management Schools).[13] The university maintains student and faculty exchange programs around the world.
St. Gallen's state school system contains 64 Kindergartens, 21 primary schools and 7 secondary schools and about 6,800 students.[14] In addition to the state system St. Gallen is home to the Institut auf dem Rosenberg — an elite boarding school attracting students from all over the world. The Institut provides an education in English, German and Italian and prepares the students to enter American, British, Swiss, Italian, German and other European university programs.[15]
In St.Gallen about 68.8% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule).[3] Out of the total population in St. Gallen, as of 2000[update], the highest education level completed by 15,035 people (20.7% of the population) was Primary, while 27,465 (37.8%) have completed their secondary education, 10,249 (14.1%) have attended a Tertiary school, and 2,910 (4.0%) are not in school. The remainder did not answer this question.[16]
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent a Bear rampant Sable langued and in his virility Gules and armed and gorged Or.[17]
St. Gallen has a population (as of 31 December 2010) of 72,959.[1] As of 2007[update], about 27.5% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Of the foreign population, (as of 2000[update]), 2,363 are from Germany, 3,691 are from Italy, 7,111 are from ex-Yugoslavia, 794 are from Austria, 1,060 are from Turkey, and 4,405 are from another country.[18] Over the last 10 years, the population has grown at a rate of 0.7%. Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (83.0%), with Italian being second most common (3.7%) and Serbo-Croatian being third (3.7%).[3] Of the Swiss national languages (as of 2000[update]), 60,297 speak German, 575 people speak French, 2,722 people speak Italian, and 147 people speak Romansh.[16]
The age distribution, as of 2000[update], in St.Gallen is; 6,742 children or 9.3% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 7,595 teenagers or 10.5% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 12,574 people or 17.3% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 11,735 people or 16.2% are between 30 and 39, 9,535 people or 13.1% are between 40 and 49, and 8,432 people or 11.6% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 6,461 people or 8.9% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 5,633 people or 7.8% are between 70 and 79, there are 3,255 people or 4.5% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 655 people or 0.9% who are between 90 and 99, and 9 people or 0.0% who are 100 or more.[16]
In 2000[update] there were 16,166 persons (or 22.3% of the population) who were living alone in private dwellings. There were 17,137 (or 23.6%) persons who were part of a couple (married or otherwise committed) without children, and 27,937 (or 38.5%) who were part of a couple with children. There were 4,533 (or 6.2%) people who lived in single parent home, while there are 419 persons who were adult children living with one or both parents, 475 persons who lived in a household made up of relatives, 2,296 who lived household made up of unrelated persons, and 3,663 who are either institutionalized or live in another type of collective housing.[16]
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 25.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (23.2%), the CVP (17.3%) and the FDP (15.3%).[3]
The historical population is given in the following table:[19]
| year | population | Swiss Nationals | % German Speaking | % Italian Speaking | % Romansh Speaking | % Protestant | % Roman Catholic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1411 | ca. 2,300–2,900 | ||||||
| about 1500 | ca. 3,000–4,000 | ||||||
| 1680 | ca. 6,000 | ||||||
| 1766 | ca. 8,350 | ||||||
| 1809 | 8,118 | ||||||
| 1837 | 9,430 | ||||||
| 1850 | 17,858 | 16,529 | 50.4% | 49.3% | |||
| 1870b | 26,398 | 23,805 | 49.8% | 49.9% | |||
| 1888 | 43,296 | 34,168 | 97.5% | 1.4% | 0.5% | 49.0% | 49.7% |
| 1900 | 53,796 | 40,342 | 94.9% | 3.6% | 0.7% | 46.8% | 52.1% |
| 1910 | 75,482 | 50,582 | 88.7% | 9.5% | 0.8% | 43.5% | 54.2% |
| 1930 | 63,947 | 52,679 | 95.9% | 2.5% | 0.8% | 48.5% | 49.0% |
| 1950 | 68,011 | 61,009 | 95.4% | 2.6% | 1.0% | 49.3% | 47.8% |
| 1970 | 80,852 | 66,270 | 86.3% | 8.6% | 0.8% | 42.1% | 55.1% |
| 1990 | 75,237 | 58,300 | 82.4% | 5.6% | 1.1% | 35.1% | 50.8% |
| 2000 | 72,626 | 53,132 | 83.0% | 3.7% | 0.8% | 28.9% | 44.0% |
As of 2007[update], St.Gallen had an unemployment rate of 2.69%. As of 2005[update], there were 336 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 95 businesses involved in this sector. 11,227 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 707 businesses in this sector. 48,729 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 4,035 businesses in this sector.[3] As of October 2009[update] the average unemployment rate was 4.5%.[20] There were 4857 businesses in the municipality of which 689 were involved in the secondary sector of the economy while 4102 were involved in the third.[21] As of 2000[update] there were 28,399 residents who worked in the municipality, while 8,927 residents worked outside St.Gallen and 31,543 people commuted into the municipality for work.[22]
According to the 2000 census[update], 31,978 or 44.0% are Roman Catholic, while 19,578 or 27.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there are 112 individuals (or about 0.15% of the population) who belong to the Christian Catholic faith, there are 3,253 individuals (or about 4.48% of the population) who belong to the Orthodox Church, and there are 1,502 individuals (or about 2.07% of the population) who belong to another Christian church. There are 133 individuals (or about 0.18% of the population) who are Jewish, and 4,856 (or about 6.69% of the population) who are Islamic. There are 837 individuals (or about 1.15% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), 7,221 (or about 9.94% of the population) belong to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 3,156 individuals (or about 4.35% of the population) did not answer the question.[16]
In 1992 St. Gallen was awarded the Wakker Prize for the city's effort to create a unified structure and appearance in current and future construction.[23]
There are 28 sites in St. Gallen that are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance. There are four religious buildings in St. Gallen that are on the inventory. Of course, the Abbey of St. Gallen is on the list. Additionally, the former Dominican Abbey of St. Katharina, the Reformed Church of St. Laurenzenkirche and the Roman Catholic parish church of St. Maria Neudorf are also part of the inventory.
There are six museums or archives in the inventory. This includes the Textile museum, the Historical and ethnographical museum, the Cantonal library and city archives, the Art and Natural History museum, the Museum in Lagerhaus and the Cantonal archives. The entire city of St. Gallen is the only archeological heritage site. There are two bridges that are listed as well, the Eisenbahnbrücke BT (railroad bridge) and the Kräzern-Strassenbrücke with a custom house.
There are twelve other sites that are part of the inventory. These include the main train station, main post office, University of St. Gallen, Cantonal School, City Theatre as well as several other buildings. Two towers are part of the dozen sites, the Lokremise with Wasserturm and the Tröckneturm. [24]
The A1 motorway links St. Gallen with St. Margrethen, Zurich, Bern and Geneva. In 1987 the city motorway was opened, which conveys the traffic through two tunnels (Rosenberg and Stefanshorn) almost directly below the city center.
St. Gallen has its own small airport Airport St. Gallen-Altenrhein near Lake of Constance, with regular flights to Vienna and other destinations.
St. Gallen is closely tied to the national Swiss Federal Railways network and has InterCity connections to Zurich and the Zurich International Airport every half an hour. St. Gallen is the hub for many private railways such as the Südostbahn (SOB), connecting St. Gallen with Lucerne, the Appenzeller Bahnen with connections to Appenzell and the Trogenerbahn to Trogen, which also serves as a tram in downtown.
The town has a dense local bus transportation system operated by the VBSG, which is well established on the valley floor and less on the hills. As St. Gallen is located near the Appenzell mountain area, it offers also many Postauto (post bus) connections. The agglomeration also has its own S-Bahn System (overground local trains).
The large urban area Zurich is about 80 km south-west of St. Gallen and is reachable by car in about 50–90 minutes depending on traffic and by ICN train in 65 minutes.
St. Gallen has an average of 144 days of rain or snow per year and on average receives 1,248 mm (49.1 in) of precipitation. The wettest month is August during which time St.Gallen receives an average of 155 mm (6.1 in) of rain. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 13.5 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is May, with an average of 14.3, but with only 134 mm (5.3 in) of rain or snow. The driest month of the year is February with an average of 64 mm (2.5 in) of precipitation over 13.5 days.[27]
| Climate data for St.Gallen | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 1.8 (35.2) |
3 (37) |
6.3 (43.3) |
10.3 (50.5) |
15 (59) |
18 (64) |
20.5 (68.9) |
19.7 (67.5) |
17 (63) |
11.9 (53.4) |
6.4 (43.5) |
2.7 (36.9) |
11.1 (52.0) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −1.1 (30.0) |
−0.1 (31.8) |
2.9 (37.2) |
6.3 (43.3) |
10.6 (51.1) |
13.8 (56.8) |
16.1 (61.0) |
15.6 (60.1) |
13 (55) |
8.5 (47.3) |
3.4 (38.1) |
−0.2 (31.6) |
7.4 (45.3) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −3.8 (25.2) |
−2.9 (26.8) |
−0.1 (31.8) |
2.8 (37.0) |
6.8 (44.2) |
9.9 (49.8) |
12.1 (53.8) |
11.8 (53.2) |
9.3 (48.7) |
5.4 (41.7) |
0.7 (33.3) |
−2.8 (27.0) |
4.1 (39.4) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 65 (2.56) |
64 (2.52) |
73 (2.87) |
110 (4.33) |
134 (5.28) |
152 (5.98) |
152 (5.98) |
155 (6.1) |
115 (4.53) |
74 (2.91) |
86 (3.39) |
71 (2.8) |
1,248 (49.13) |
| Avg. precipitation days | 11.8 | 10.2 | 12.4 | 13.4 | 14.3 | 14.3 | 13.4 | 13.5 | 9.8 | 8.6 | 11 | 11.3 | 144 |
| Source: MeteoSchweiz [27] | |||||||||||||
St. Gallen is notable for reporting the highest maximum radioactivity measurements of any Swiss city, as published in the 2009 yearly report by BAG (Bundesamt für Gesundheit), the Swiss Federal Health Office. While the daily average level of gamma-ray radioactivity in the city is unremarkable at 105 nSv/h, the maximum can reach 195 nSv/h, as high as the average for Jungfraujoch, the location with the highest reported level of radioactivity in Switzerland, due to its high elevation and therefore greater exposure to cosmic rays. The same report explains that the unusually high spikes of radioactivity measured in St. Gallen are due to radioactive products of radon gas being washed to the ground during heavy rain or storms, but does not explain where the sufficient quantities of radon gas and its products to account for the anomaly would come from.[28] The yearly report for 2009 on risks associated with radon published by the same governmental agency shows St. Gallen to lie in an area of the lowest level of radon exposure.[29] In addition to the measured gamma-radiation, the city may be subject to radioactive Tritium pollution in Teufen, a satellite town situated 4 km south of the city in the canton of Appenzell Outer Rhodes (this pollution is also covered in the report).
Auf Pantoffeln in goldene Zeiten in St. Galler Tagblatt (German)
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