Alt St. Johann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alt St. Johann
Coat of arms of Alt St. Johann
State : SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland
Canton : Canton of St. GallenCanton of St. Gallen Canton of St. Gallen (SG)
Constituency : Toggenburg
Political community : Wildhaus-Alt St. Johanni2
Postal code : 9656
former BFS no. : 3351
Coordinates : 739 805  /  228 581 coordinates: 47 ° 11 '36 "  N , 9 ° 17' 1"  O ; CH1903:  seven hundred and thirty-nine thousand eight hundred and five  /  228,581
Height : 895  m above sea level M.
Area : 53.10  km²
Residents: 1427 (December 31, 2008)
Population density : 27 inhabitants per km²
Website: www.altstjohann.ch
Parish before the merger in 2010

Parish before the merger in 2010
map
Alt St. Johann (Switzerland)
Alt St. Johann
w w

Alt St. Johann (in local dialect Àlt Sànnt Johànn or Àlt Santjhán , French. Formerly Saint-Jean-le-Vieux ) is a former political municipality and a town in Toggenburg in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland . On January 1, 2010, the communities of Alt St. Johann and Wildhaus merged to form the community of Wildhaus-Alt St. Johann .

geography

Alt St. Johann im Thurtal, in the background the Säntis massif

The second highest municipality in the Thur Valley until the merger comprised the villages of Alt St. Johann, Unterwasser and the hamlet of Starkenbach in the valley floor, scattered settlements on the valley sides and extensive Alps on the northern slope of the Churfirsten and on the foothills of the Alpstein . Above Alt St. Johann, near the Selamatt, lies the Köbelishöhle . The highest point in the area of ​​the former municipality was the Hinterrugg at 2306 m above sea level. M. and the lowest point at 868 m is the point where the Thur leaves the municipality. The neighboring communities were Wildhaus, Nesslau and from 2005 Nesslau-Krummenau , Stein SG , Amden , Quarten , Walenstadt and Grabs .

history

Aerial photo by Werner Friedli, 1964

In an alpine karst cave in Toggenburg, the Wildenmannlisloch were Palaeolithic finds made. Romanic alpine and mountain names indicate a use by a Romanic speaking population.

St. Johann Monastery, mentioned in 1152; right Protestant church

1152 an abbot monasterii sancti Johannis Baptiste ( monastery St. Johann ) is mentioned. The monastery founded by Benedictines also established the place name. Starkenstein Castle , located between Stein and Starkenbach, was built around 1200 . It was owned by the Counts of Montfort and von Werdenberg . Since 1396 the umbrella bailiwick was taken over by the Counts of Toggenburg . The castle went to the Toggenburg family in 1414 and later to the St. Johann monastery. The place Sant Johann is mentioned for the first time in 1439. It formed a judicial district of the monastic rule. In 1445, the battle in Obertoggenburg took place in the municipality during the Old Zurich War . In 1468 the prince abbey of St. Gallen acquired the county of Toggenburg and with it also the sovereignty of the monastery and community of St. Johann. After the incorporation of the St. Johann monastery into the prince abbey of St. Gallen in 1555, St. Johann received the same rights as the other Toggenburg communities in 1559. From 1626 onwards, after conflagrations and mysterious deaths, the St. Johann monastery was relocated down the valley to Sidwald near Nesslau ( Neu St. Johann monastery ). The name Alt St. Johann became common for the village . In 1803, after the founding of the canton of St. Gallen, the political community Alt St. Johann was established, to which Stein belonged until 1833 . In 1950 and 1954/55 rescue excavations were carried out on Starkenstein Castle, which had now fallen into ruins. Most of the castle complex is today destroyed by a quarry. Only parts of the keep are preserved.

Alte Untermühle, mentioned in 1536, now serves as the sound forge of the Toggenburg sound world

From the 16th to 17th centuries, the economic focus was on livestock (rearing, milk, meat) and forestry. In addition, there were peasant supplies as well as small trades and arts and crafts (musical instrument makers). At the end of the 20th century there were 15 public and four private alpine corporations. Tourism emerged around 1900: hiking and nature reserves at the mountain lakes Gräppelen and Schwendi as well as the Säntisthur waterfalls . In 1918, Alt St. Johann was connected to public transport by means of a horse-drawn carriage, and later by the Nesslau – Buchs post bus line. As a result, the Churfirsten region was made accessible by mountain railways: In 1934 the Unterwasser – Iltios funicular, the Iltiosbahn , was built as the first mountain railway in Toggenburg. In 1938 the Iltios – Stöfeli toboggan funicular was added, in 1946 the Alt St. Johann – Alp Selamatt chairlift and in 1972 the Iltios – Chäserrugg aerial cableway to the summit of the Chäserrugg . Today the lifts are part of the Obertoggenburg ski area . From 1950 the number of employees in the second and especially in the third economic sector increased steadily at the expense of the farms. In spatial planning, Alt St. Johann works together with Wildhaus on the qualitative development of the health resort region.

In 2010 the former political municipality of Alt St. Johann was merged with the municipality of Wildhaus on January 1, 2010 to form the new municipality of Wildhaus-Alt St. Johann .

population

Population development
year 1827 1850 1900 1950 2000
Residents 1618 1623 1504 1434 1453

Tourism and transport

Train station and mountain restaurant Iltios

Alt St. Johann and the then associated village Unterwasser can look back on a long tourist tradition. The funicular to the Iltios was built as early as 1934, which has since been followed by numerous other transport systems. Today Alt St. Johann with Wildhaus and Unterwasser belongs to the Obertoggenburg ski area , and on the Chäserrugg it reaches an altitude of 2262 m. Since 2019 the ski and summer sports area has been separated into the Alt St. Johann / Unterwasser and Wildhaus areas due to the "mountain railway dispute". In summer and winter it is the starting point for hikes and ski tours to Säntis as well as to the Churfirsten.

Alt St. Johann is on Hauptstrasse 16 Wil – Wildhaus – Buchs and is served every half hour by the Nesslau – Wildhaus – Buchs post bus line. The 60 kilometer long Thurweg , a hiking trail that runs along the Thur from Wil to Wildhaus, runs through the municipality .

Attractions

In July 2011, in the former Untermühle , a Toggenburg house which Klangschmiede as the seat of Sound World of Toggenburg opened. Here the traditional bell and dulcimer production is to be preserved and made accessible to the public as a show craft with exhibitions.

Horn sled race

Horn sledge race February 17, 2008

Since 1988, the horn sled race , known far beyond Toggenburg, has taken place every February . In peak years, up to 200 sledges took part. The last race was held in 2013.

Personalities

Web links

Commons : Alt St. Johann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alt St. Johann on ortsnames.ch (online database), accessed on July 7, 2020
  2. ↑ a b c d e Hans Büchler : Alt Sankt Johann. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  3. ↑ Gabrielle Schmid: Alt Sankt Johann SG (Obertoggenburg) in: Dictionnaire toponymique des communes suisses - Lexicon of Swiss community names - Dizionario toponomastico dei comuni svizzeri (DTS | LSG). Center de dialectologie, Université de Neuchâtel, Verlag Huber, Frauenfeld / Stuttgart / Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7193-1308-5 and Éditions Payot, Lausanne 2005, ISBN 2-601-03336-3 , p. 84.
  4. ↑ a b Hans Büchler: Alt Sankt Johann. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
    These sections are largely based on the entry in the Historical Lexicon of Switzerland (HLS), which, according to the HLS's usage information, is under the Creative Commons license     - Attribution - Distribution under the same conditions 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).
  5. ↑ 80.790 Wattwil - Nesslau - Wildhaus - Buchs (Churfirsten line). In: Official course book , timetable year 2020
  6. ↑ Klangschmiede Alt St. Johann on the website of Klangwelt Toggenburg
  7. ↑ Christopher Eggenberger: "After 25 years the air is out". In: St. Galler Tagblatt (online), June 26, 2012