Schänis

Schänis
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Canton of St. Gallen (SG)
Constituency :	Sea gaster
BFS no. :	3315
Postal code :	8718
Coordinates :	722204  /  223 368 coordinates: 47 ° 9 '0 "  N , 9 ° 3' 0"  O ; CH1903:  722204  /  two hundred twenty-three thousand three hundred sixty-eight
Height :	420  m above sea level M.
Height range :	410–1948 m above sea level M.
Area :	39.90  km²
Residents:	3819 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	96 inhabitants per km²
Website:	www.schaenis.ch
Location of the municipality

Schänis is a municipality in the canton of St. Gallen . It is located in the constituency of See-Gaster in the Linth plain on the right side of the Linth Canal , west of the Walensee in the Gaster landscape . The history of the village was shaped by the noble Schänis women's monastery until 1811 .

history

Old Town Hall

Scamnum is Latin for sandbar . A sandbank in the Tuggenersee probably gave Schänis its name. In old documents the place is listed as Skennines , Scandensis, and Scennies . The history of the village is closely linked to that of the noble women's monastery. In 1438 the high jurisdiction over Schänis with the pen in the hands of Schwyz and Glarus. The village formed one of the six Tagwen in the Bailiwick of Gaster and formed its main town, as the rural parishes took place here and the administrative building was located. On April 29, 1610, the village with church and monastery was destroyed by a devastating fire. In 1798 the rulership rights of the monastery passed to the community. The collegiate church went to the Schänis parish. During the Helvetic era, today's municipality of Schänis was created within the canton of Linth by merging the local municipalities of Schänis, Rütiberg, Dorf, Rufi and Maseltrangen. The former office building and town hall of Schänis, like the monastery buildings, went to the Gmür family. During the Second Battle of Zurich in 1799 at Schänis there was fighting between French and Austrian troops, in which the Imperial-Royal Lieutenant Field Marshal Friedrich von Hotze was killed. Since 1831 Schänis was the capital of the Gaster district in the canton of St. Gallen.

On May 2, 1847, Colonel Dominik Gmür and District Court Clerk Johannes Doubt helped the Liberal Party to gain a majority in the district parish, which resulted in a liberal majority in the Grand Council of the Canton of St. Gallen and the canton became the “canton of fate” when the Sonderbund War broke out. 1859 the railway line between Ziegelbrücke and Uznach opened.

coat of arms

Since 1946 the municipal coat of arms has consisted of a combination of the coat of arms of the Kyburger and the Schänis women's monastery. Divided, in the upper silver field a red striding lion, accompanied by a golden cross in the right upper corner, in the lower red field a golden crown with leaf prongs. According to an old flag from 1786 owned by the Gmür family (today in the Historisches Museum St. Gallen), the coat of arms used to show two crescent moons of gold lying tangentially facing away from each other in blue over a green mountain of three, topped by a golden paw cross.

geography

Aerial photo by Werner Friedli from 1947

The hamlets of Dorf , Rufi , Maseltrangen , Rüttiberg and Ziegelbrücke belong to the political community of Schänis . With the exception of Ziegelbrücke, the main settlement and the hamlets are each administered by a local community, not to be confused with the independent political communities of the Canton of Glarus, which existed until 2011 and are known as local communities .

The highest point in the municipality of Schänis is the Speer with a height of 1950 m. ü. The Federispitze , whose western flank is known as the Schänner Berg, is also located in the area of ​​Schänis . Another distinctive elevation is the Biberlichopf on the border with Weesen, on which the ruins of a Roman watchtower and a television tower stand. The Benkner Büchel separates Schänis from the neighboring municipality of Benken .

population

Population development
year	Residents
1850	1'917
1900	1,876
1950	2,223
1980	2,426
2000	3,573
2010	3,530

economy

Schänis station (1965)

Major employers include Bico AG (formerly Matratzenfabrik Birchler & Co. ), Systemtechnik Schänis GmbH and Spar Schänis (in the Schänis shopping center).

traffic

The railway lines Rapperswil - Glarus - Linthal and Zurich - Chur cross at Ziegelbrücke . The station has more than ten tracks and is also served by international express trains. The village center is served by the regional trains on the Rapperswil – Glarus – Linthal line and the Ziegelbrücke – Uznach post bus line.

A little further away from the village of Schänis is the small glider airfield Schänis .

Attractions

See also : List of cultural assets in Schänis

Former Schänis women's monastery and church

There are some listed buildings in the municipality.

• The former collegiate church of the Schänis monastery . Today the parish church of St. Bastian. (National Monument)
• The former convent building of the Schänis monastery.
• The Gallusturm from the 12th century, the rest of the parish church that burned out in the 19th century. (National Monument)
• The collegiate and parish church of St. Sebastian.
• The remains of the Roman watchtower on the Biberlichopf. (National Monument)
• The Niederwindegg castle ruins
• The former town hall of Schänis.
• The Selinerhaus with its square front and the Louis XVI portal.
• The Steinerhaus with its southern gable with the carved heads.
• The neoclassical schoolhouse from 1878.

Web links

Commons : Schänis  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the community of Schänis
• Stefan Paradowski: Schänis (community). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

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. ↑ Bernhard Anderes: The art monuments of the canton of St. Gallen, Vol. V, The district of Gaster. In: Die Kunstdenkmäler der Schweiz, vol. 59.Birkhäuser, Basel 1970, p. 156.
3. ↑ Bernhard Anderes: The art monuments of the canton of St. Gallen, Vol. V, The district of Gaster. In: Die Kunstdenkmäler der Schweiz, Vol. 59. Birkhäuser, Basel 1970, pp. 270–271.
4. ^ Moritz Flury-Rova: The collegiate and parish church of St. Sebastian in Schänis. (Swiss Art Guide, No. 792, Series 80). Ed. Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 2006, ISBN 978-3-85782-792-1 .