Lichtensteig

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Lichtensteig
Lichtensteig coat of arms
State : SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland
Canton : Canton of St. GallenCanton of St. Gallen Canton of St. Gallen (SG)
Constituency : Toggenburgw
BFS no. : 3374i1 f3 f4
Postal code : 9620
UN / LOCODE : CH LSG
Coordinates : 724 343  /  241 946 coordinates: 47 ° 19 '0 "  N , 9 ° 5' 0"  O ; CH1903:  724343  /  241,946
Height : 625  m above sea level M.
Height range : 590–1146 m above sea level M.
Area : 2.82  km²
Residents: 1869 (December 31, 2018)
Population density : 663 inhabitants per km²
Website: www.lichtensteig.ch
Lichtensteig

Lichtensteig

Location of the municipality
Zürichsee Wägitalersee Walensee Kanton Appenzell Ausserrhoden Kanton Appenzell Innerrhoden Kanton Glarus Kanton Schwyz Kanton Thurgau Kanton Zürich Wahlkreis See-Gaster Wahlkreis Sarganserland Wahlkreis St. Gallen Wahlkreis Werdenberg Wahlkreis Wil Bütschwil-Ganterschwil Ebnat-Kappel Hemberg SG Kirchberg SG Lichtensteig Lütisburg Mosnang Neckertal Nesslau Oberhelfenschwil Wattwil Wildhaus-Alt St. JohannMap of Lichtensteig
About this picture
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Lichtensteig is a small town and political municipality in the canton of St. Gallen ( Switzerland ). It is located in the Toggenburg constituency .

geography

Historic aerial photo by Werner Friedli from 1946

The neighboring communities are Oberhelfenschwil , Bütschwil-Ganterschwil and Wattwil .

history

Lichtensteig was first mentioned in 1228 as a fortified place of the Counts of Toggenburg with the name Liehtvnsteige. The history of Lichtensteig is closely linked to the history of Neu-Toggenburg Castle . A mayor from Liechtensteig is mentioned for the first time in 1310 . In 1400 , Count Donat Lichtensteig issued a letter of freedom for the first time. Through this and other letters, Lichtensteig obtained city rights and its own market, its own administration, its own court and the right to mint. At that time the town had 400 inhabitants. The town was ruled by a council of twelve, with six councils being elected annually by the citizens to the May community. The sovereign appointed the other six councilors. The mayor was appointed by the sovereign on the proposal of the council. In 1425 a city school is mentioned. In 1435 the last Count of Toggenburg built a church in the town. From 1531 to 1967 , Catholics and Protestants used the same church. After the Old Zurich War , Prince Abbot Ulrich Rösch of St. Gallen bought the County of Toggenburg and with it Lichtensteig in 1468 . Lichtensteig became the seat of the bailiff of the prince abbey of St. Gallen . The Lichtensteiger Albrecht Miles was appointed as the first bailiff. In 1469 the abbot confirmed the letters of freedom. The Toggenburg bailiffs of the St. Gallen monastery resided in Lichtensteig until 1798 . The Toggenburg district administrator, the district court and the war council met in Lichtensteig, and from 1529 also the Reformed Synod, after the majority of the citizens had joined the Reformation in 1524 . In 1652 a land shooting in Lichtensteig was first mentioned in a document. Landschießen is the oldest free shooting in Switzerland. On February 1, 1798, the last bailiff, Karl Müller-Friedberg , declared Toggenburg free without first consulting the abbot in St. Gallen. Lichtensteig was the capital of a Toggenburg Free State for 3 months. In the same year the town comes to the canton of Säntis . 1803 Lichtensteig becomes the district capital in the new canton of St. Gallen . In 1870 the Toggenburgerbahn Wil - Ebnat started operations. The Lichtensteig train station, located in the area of ​​the political municipality of Wattwil, became a traffic junction with the construction of the Bodensee-Toggenburg railway in 1910 . In 1967 the Reformed congregation built its own house of worship. 1970 the Catholic. This ended the shared use of the old church after 430 years. The parity church built in 1868 was demolished in 1968 . In 1868 the two denominationally separate schools were united into one school.

The UBS branch in Lichtensteig, founded as Toggenburger Bank in 1863, is the origin of what is now Switzerland's largest bank.

In 1874 the villages of Hof, Loreto and Blatten were transferred from the municipality of Oberhelfenschwil to Lichtensteig.

population

Population development
year Residents
1910 1536
1960 2032
1990 2046
2010 1924

politics

Parish partnership

A community partnership between Lichtensteig and Adelberg in Baden-Württemberg has existed since 1978 , which was renewed and reinforced in 1991. Volknand von Staufen from the Toggenburg family founded the Adelberg Monastery on their own property in Swabia in 1178 .

Transport and economy

When the BT opened in 1910 , Lichtensteig got a new train station.

Lichtensteig is on Hauptstrasse 16 , which connects Wil and Wildhaus; a bypass road, classified as a car road, relieves the city of transit traffic. It is also on Hauptstrasse 8 and is therefore the starting point of the Wasserfluhpass .

Since the Toggenburgerbahn began operating on the Wil - Ebnat-Kappel line on June 24, 1870 , Lichtensteig and the station located in the municipality of Wattwil have been served by the railway. When the Bodensee-Toggenburg Railway (BT) opened the Romanshorn - St. Gallen - Wattwil route on October 1, 1910 , the station was replaced by a wedge station located a little to the southeast . The station building of the first station has been preserved. Lichtensteig is served by lines S 2 , S 4 and S 9 of the St. Gallen S-Bahn . The St. Gallen – Wattwil – Nesslau – Neu St. Johann line with the Lichtensteig – Brunnadern water flow tunnel and the Lichtensteig train station is now owned by the Südostbahn (SOB). The Wil – Lichtensteig route is owned by the SBB .

The local bus operated by the Lichtensteig – Wattwil – Ebnat-Kappel (BLWE) bus service between Lichtensteig and Ebnat-Kappel connects the town with Wattwil. A post bus course leads from Lichtensteig train station to Krinau .

economy

The company Kägi Söhne AG is known nationwide , primarily for its product Kägi fret .

Attractions

The community has a medieval old town ("Städtli"). The oldest houses, which are also part of the city wall, are dated to the first half of the 15th century. Lichtensteig has been part of The Most Beautiful Swiss Villages Association since 2016 .

The most striking architectural monument is the Catholic Church of St. Gallus (1968–1970) by Walter M. Förderer . It stands on a hill above the old town and belongs to the Brutalist architectural style .

Culture

The Jazz Days, the largest jazz festival in Eastern Switzerland , take place in Lichtensteig every August . The Swiss photo flea market takes place in September.

Personalities

literature

  • Daniel Studer: The little town of Lichtensteig in Toggenburg. Edited in cooperation with the Lichtensteig city administration. (Swiss Art Guide, Volume 577/578, Series 58). Society for Swiss Art History GSK, Bern 1995, ISBN 3-85782-577-4 .
  • Arnim Müller: Lichtensteig. History of the Toggenburg town. Political community Lichtensteig, Lichtensteig 1978.
  • Robert Forrer: Lichtensteig, the small commercial town in Toggenburg. Political community Lichtensteig, Lichtensteig 2008.

Web links

Commons : Lichtensteig  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Liechtensteig in the Topographia Helvetiae, Rhaetiae et Valesiae (Matthäus Merian)  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Permanent and non-permanent resident population by year, canton, district, municipality, population type and gender (permanent resident population). In: bfs. admin.ch . Federal Statistical Office (FSO), August 31, 2019, accessed on December 22, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Hans Büchler : Lichtensteig. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . November 27, 2008. Retrieved September 28, 2018 .
  3. ↑ The history of Lichtensteig at a glance. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 29, 2018 ; accessed on September 18, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lichtensteig.ch
  4. ^ Lichtensteig in the association The Most Beautiful Swiss Villages. In: www.lichtensteig.ch. Retrieved November 23, 2016 .