Switzerland, St Gallen

St. Gallen 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 services for its economic base.

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 mountain area.

History

One of the earliest mayors of Saint 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 1400s. Ulrich made his entry into public affairs in the early 1460's and gathered the various offices and honors that are available to a talented and ambitious man.

In 1463 Ulrich Rösch had assumed the management of the St. Gallen Abbey. 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 Wars.

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 starting 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.

Geography

St. Gallen is situated in the north-eastern part of Switzerland in a valley around 700 meters above sea level. It is one of the highest cities in Switzerland and it can receive a lot of snow in winter.

As the city center actually rises 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 have to be built on piles.

Education

St.Gallen is famous for its university, aptly named University of St. Gallen (HSG). It is the number one school for business and management in German-speaking Europe and one of the top addresses worldwide. Recently, HSG has been building a reputation for Executive Education, with its International MBA recognised as one of Europe's leading programmes, and runs a PhD programme with a consultancy based research methodology.

Transportation

The A1 motorway links St. Gallen with St. Margrethen, Zürich, Bern and Geneva. In 1987 the city motorway was opened, which leads 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, residing at nearby Lake of Constance with regular flights to Vienna and other destinations.

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.