The Lordship of Sax-Forstegg was a territory in the

Alpine Rhine Valley The Alpine Rhine Valley (german: Alpenrheintal) is a glacial alpine valley, formed by the part of the Alpine Rhine (german: Alpenrhein ) between the confluence of the Anterior Rhine and Posterior Rhine at Reichenau and the Alpine Rhine's mouth at ...

, including the settlements of Sennwald and Altstätten, now part of the canton of St. Gallen,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. It was named for the baronial family of Sax and their castle Forstegg. It was created with the division of the old Lordship of Sax into Hohensax and Frischenberg in the late 14th century. In 1458, the lords of Sax-Forstegg entered a pact with the Swiss Confederacy. In addition, they were also citizens of St. Gallen from 1463, and citizens of Zürich from 1486. Baron Ulrich VII von Sax received the villages of Frischenberg and Lienz as a gift from the Confederacy in 1490. He was a successful military commander on the side of the Confederacy in the Swabian War of 1499. The

Swiss Reformation The Protestant Reformation in Switzerland was promoted initially by Huldrych Zwingli, who gained the support of the magistrate, Mark Reust, and the population of Zürich in the 1520s. It led to significant changes in civil life and state matte ...

was introduced in Sax-Forstegg in 1553. The territory was acquired by Zürich in 1615. Sax-Forsteg remained a bailiwick of Zürich until the collapse of the Old Swiss Confederacy in 1798. It was attached to the

canton of Linth Linth was a canton of the Helvetic Republic from 1798 to 1803, consisting of Glarus and its subject County of Werdenberg, the Höfe and March districts of Schwyz and the Züricher subject Lordship of Sax, along with a handful of shared terri ...

in 1798 and became part of the canton of St. Gallen in 1803, from 1831 within Werdenberg District.

References

* {{Authority control History of the canton of St. Gallen