Gaster (landscape)
The Gaster or Gasterland landscape comprises the area between Weesen and Uznach east of the Linth River in Switzerland. The name "Gaster" is derived from the Latin castrum , allegedly after a Roman fort on the Gasterholz hill between Schänis and Kaltbrunn . In the Middle Ages, the landscape formed the rule of Windegg or the Landvogtei Gaster , 1438–1798 a common rule of the Swiss Confederation . The name "Windegg" comes from the two castles Ober- and Niederwindegg in the area of today's municipalities Niederurnen and Schänis.
history
The Linth Plain was inhabited as early as the Bronze Age and the Hallstatt Period, before the Celts settled there. Today's Lint Plain was mostly covered by the water of Lake Zurich or marshland. With the Roman conquest of Helvetia and Rhaetia in 58 and 15 BC, respectively. The Gaster became part of the Raetia province - the border to the Germania superior province probably ran between Uznach and the Gasterholz hill . The expansion of the Alpine passes Splügen and Julier by the Romans gave the Linth area and thus also the Gaster transport significance, as goods, soldiers and travelers could now be transported from the Germanic provinces to the south by land and sea. Most of the traffic between Lake Zurich and Lake Walen was handled via the Linth and Maag rivers . The watchtowers at Strahlegg Castle and the Biberlichopf are probably part of an early August security system that was created to protect this important connection.
The advance of the Alamanni into north-eastern Switzerland in the 6th and 7th centuries AD pushed the Romanized Celtic population up to the prominent Gasterholz hill between Kaltbrunn and Maseltrangen . This is where the early Romance-Alemannic language border probably ran. The southernmost Alemannic court settlement initially remained Babinchova (Benken). Already in the early Middle Ages the Romansh-Alamannic language border shifted to the Walensee, the « Welschen » lake - d. H. the lake of novels.
A first Christian mission in the Linth Plain by the Irish missionaries Columban and Gallus failed in 610. A monastery is recorded for 741 in Benken. Here was the center of power of the Alemannic Beata Landolt clan, who donated their goods to the St. Gallen monastery (744) in the course of the dissolution of the Duchy of Alemannia by the Franks (746 ). Under canon law, the Gaster has belonged to the diocese of Chur since the reorganization of the dioceses by the Frankish King Dagobert I in 634 . The Benken farm with Gommiswald , Rieden and Maseltrangen later came to the Diocese of Chur as property of the Schänis monastery; only Kaltbrunn had belonged to the diocese of Constance since 940 , as it had been donated to the monastery of Einsiedeln by the Swabian Duchess Reginlinde . In the years 815–43 the Franconian Count Hunfried von Rätien founded the Schänis Monastery . This monastery and its governors largely shaped the later development of the Linth Plain and the Gasterland.
In 917, the Gaster, together with the county of Churrätien, became part of the newly founded Duchy of Swabia within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation . The bailiwick of the Schänis monastery was no longer held by the Counts of Raetia, but by the nobles of Schänis, and from 1018 onwards, Counts of Lenzburg descended from the latter . After its extinction in 1172/73, the area of the monastery, which included the farms of Benken, Maseltrangen, Rufi, Niederweesen (city of Weesen) and Oberweesen, was initially divided between the German Emperor Friedrich I and the Count of Kyburg . Later the part of the emperor came to the counts of Rapperswil . It was not until the Habsburgs reunited the area when they inherited the Kyburgs in 1264 and the Rapperswilers in 1283.
Since the Habsburgs also held the Kastvogtei over the Säckingen monastery , which owned the area of today's Canton of Glarus , the Glarnerland and Gaster together formed an administrative unit, which was divided into an "Oberamt Glarus" and a "Unteramt Gaster". Thus, the term Gaster, from the Latin Castrum (castle), which has only been documented since the 13th century, was first used to designate the Linth plain between Weesen and Uznach . The corresponding castrum was an old weir system on the Gasterholz hill between Schänis and Kaltbrunn. In addition to the former st. Gallic district also the lowest part of today's canton of Glarus, Bilten , Niederurnen , Oberurnen , Mollis , Filzbach and Mühlehorn as well as the st. Gallic communities Quarten and Walenstadt .
After the battle of Näfels and the destruction of Weesen on April 9, 1388, Habsburg lost most of its possessions in the region. The remaining areas now formed the bailiwick of Windegg, after Niederwindegg Castle near Schänis. In 1406 Habsburg pledged the bailiwick to the Counts of Toggenburg and, after their extinction in 1438, to the cantons of Schwyz and Glarus, which from then on provided the bailiff every two years . Thus the Gasterland was until 1798 as Landvogtei Windegg or Gaster one of the common lords in the old Confederation . The name Herrschaft Windegg soon fell out of use, as Windegg Castle fell into disrepair because the governor was not subject to any residence obligation, and the older landscape name "Gaster" finally prevailed.
The actual Bailiwick of Gaster comprises six Tagwen (judicial districts): Quarten (with Murg and Quinten ), Amden , Schänis , Kaltbrunn and Benken . Weesen held a special position, as it had its own court and a subordinate. Gommiswald, which originally belonged to Benken, was incorporated into the county of Uznach . The former Hohens-Saxon community of Gams in the Rhine Valley was affiliated .
The Gaster communities took over the Reformation in 1529 , but were forcibly Catholic again after the Catholic victory over the Reformed cantons near Kappel in 1531. The rights of the country folk were temporarily restricted. The princely Reichsstift Schänis continued to exist despite all the political turmoil and was the largest landlord in the bailiwick of Windegg until it was abolished in 1811.
In the Helvetic Republic , Gaster became part of the canton of Linth in 1798 , and after its dissolution in 1803 it became part of the canton of St. Gallen , although the population was in favor of joining Schwyz. In the canton of St. Gallen, the entire right bank of the Linth area was first combined with Rapperswil to form the Uznach district, then in 1831 it was divided into two districts, the lake district and the Gaster district . After the administrative reform in the canton of St. Gallen in 2001, the Gaster district became part of the See-Gaster constituency in 2002 .
See also
literature
- Bernhard Anderes: The art monuments of the canton of St. Gallen. Vol. V. The district of Gaster . (The art monuments of Switzerland). Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1970.
- Franz Johann Joseph von Reilly (ed.): The Landvogteyen Sargans, Gaster and Utznach, with the area of the city Rapperschweil . Facsimile edition. (The 5 maps of the cantons of Eastern Switzerland; 421). Verlag Dorfpresse, Langnau a. A. 1986. [1 card: multicolored; 22 × 26 cm].
Web links
- Alois Stadler: Guest. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .