Wartau is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
in the
Werdenberg constituency of the
Swiss canton
The 26 cantons of Switzerland (german: Kanton; french: canton ; it, cantone; Sursilvan and Surmiran: ; Vallader and Puter: ; Sutsilvan: ; Rumantsch Grischun: ) are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Co ...
of
St. Gallen
, neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach
, twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic)
, website ...
. The municipality consists of a number of villages on the eastern flank of the
Alvier group, along the left shore of the
Alpine Rhine
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 ...
.
Geography
![Walensee_Foto_zwischen_Kamm_bei_Palfris_und_Tschuggen_3187](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Walensee_Foto_zwischen_Kamm_bei_Palfris_und_Tschuggen_3187.jpg)
Wartau municipality consists of the villages of Azmoos (), Trübbach (), Weite () along the Rhine, Oberschan (), Malans (), Gretschins () and Fontnas () in the foothills of the Alvier chain, the hamlets of Plattis () and Murris (), and Matug () and environs, historically a
Walser
The Walser people are the speakers of the Walser German dialects, a variety of Highest Alemannic.
They inhabit the region of the Alps of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as the fringes of Italy and Austria.
The Walser people are named af ...
Streusiedlung.
Wartau has an area, (as of the 2004/09 survey) of . Of this area, about 45.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 38.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 6.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and 9.0% is unproductive land. In the 2004/09 survey a total of or about 4.1% of the total area was covered with buildings, an increase of over the 1984 amount. About 0.19% of the total area is recreational space. Of the agricultural land, is used for orchards and vineyards, is fields and grasslands and consists of alpine grazing areas. Since 1984 the amount of agricultural land has decreased by . Over the same time period the amount of forested land has increased by . Rivers and lakes cover in the municipality.
[Regionalporträts 2017: Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 18 May 2017
The highest point of the municipality is
Alvier
The Alvier is a mountain stream in Vorarlberg, Austria.
The Alvier flows through the Brandnertal passing through the municipalities of Brand and Bürs, where it discharges into the Ill.
The waters have created numerous Kolks in the riverbed w ...
peak, at , the lowest point is the Rhine Valley at .
Demographics
Wartau has a population () of . , 28.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. In 2015 a small minority (321 or 6.1% of the population) was born in Germany a small minority (273 or 5.2% of the population) was born in Italy. Over the last 5 years (2010-2015) the population has changed at a rate of 3.73%. The
birth rate
The birth rate for a given period is the total number of live human births per 1,000 population divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registration system for births; populati ...
in the municipality, in 2015, was 10.5, while the
death rate
Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of de ...
was 8.6 per thousand residents.
[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22.5% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) are 61.1% of the population and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.4%.][ In 2015 there were 2,179 single residents, 2,443 people who were married or in a civil partnership, 243 widows or widowers and 366 divorced residents.
In 2015 there were 2,176 private households in Wartau with an average household size of 2.38 persons. In 2015 about 67.1% of all buildings in the municipality were single family homes, which is greater than the percentage in the canton (60.5%) and greater than the percentage nationally (57.4%). Of the 1,446 inhabited buildings in the municipality, in 2000, about 69.3% were single family homes and 14.2% were multiple family buildings. Additionally, about 29.6% of the buildings were built before 1919, while 11.0% were built between 1991 and 2000.][Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Thema 09 - Bau- und Wohnungswesen ]
accessed 5 May 2016 In 2014 the rate of construction of new housing units per 1000 residents was 7.66. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.82%.[
, about 23.3% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Of the foreign population, (), 84 are from ]Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, 176 are from Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, 424 are from ex-Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
, 53 are from Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, 25 are from Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
, and 155 are from another country.[Der Kanton St. Gallen und seine Menschen in Zahlen - Ausgabe 2009]
accessed 30 December 2009 Most of the population () speaks German (88.5%), with Albanian being second most common (3.2%) and Italian being third (2.9%).
accessed 19-January-2010 Of the Swiss national languages (), 4,161 speak German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
, 9 people speak French, 135 people speak Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
, and 11 people speak Romansh.[
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Colors=
id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9)
id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8)
ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45
PlotArea = top:20 left:40 bottom:20 right:35
AlignBars = justify
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:6000
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:1200 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:300 start:0
PlotData=
color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center
bar:1850 from:start till:2097 text:"2,097"
bar:1860 from:start till:2297 text:"2,297"
bar:1870 from:start till:2573 text:"2,573"
bar:1880 from:start till:2870 text:"2,870"
bar:1888 from:start till:3191 text:"3,191"
bar:1900 from:start till:3149 text:"3,149"
bar:1910 from:start till:3045 text:"3,045"
bar:1920 from:start till:3238 text:"3,238"
bar:1930 from:start till:3200 text:"3,200"
bar:1941 from:start till:3443 text:"3,443"
bar:1950 from:start till:3316 text:"3,316"
bar:1960 from:start till:3284 text:"3,284"
bar:1970 from:start till:3604 text:"3,604"
bar:1980 from:start till:3692 text:"3,692"
bar:1990 from:start till:4103 text:"4,103"
bar:2000 from:start till:4704 text:"4,704"
bar:2010 from:start till:5034 text:"5,034"
bar:2015 from:start till:5231 text:"5,231"
]
History
There are a number of Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age traces, as well traces of an early medieval estate.
The name Wartau is taken from that of Wartau Castle, built in 1225 (overlooking Gretschins). The center of the medieval manor was at Gretschins, with a church first mentioned in 1273.
The lordship of Wartau passed to the counts of Werdenberg-Heiligenberg in 1399, and further to Lucerne
Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking po ...
in 1485 and to Glarus
, neighboring_municipalities= Glarus Nord, Glarus Süd, Muotathal (SZ), Innerthal (SZ)
, twintowns= Wiesbaden-Biebrich (Germany)
}
Glarus (; gsw, Glaris; french: Glaris; it, Glarona; rm, Glaruna) is the capital of the canton of Glarus in S ...
in 1517. In the 14th century, the higher parts of the territory of the modern municipality (Matug, Walserberg, Palfris) were settled by Walser
The Walser people are the speakers of the Walser German dialects, a variety of Highest Alemannic.
They inhabit the region of the Alps of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as the fringes of Italy and Austria.
The Walser people are named af ...
. High justice
High, middle and low justices are notions dating from Western feudalism to indicate descending degrees of judicial power to administer justice by the maximal punishment the holders could inflict upon their subjects and other dependents.
Low just ...
lay with the county of Sargans
The County of Sargans was a state of the Holy Roman Empire. From 1458 until the French Revolutionary War in 1798, Sargans became a condominium of the Old Swiss Confederacy, administered jointly by the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Lucer ...
from 1483 until 1798. There was a Rhine ferry between Trübbach and Balzers
Balzers is a village located in southern Liechtenstein. As of 2019, the village had a total population of 4,642. The main part of the village is situated along the east bank of the Rhine.
History and culture
Historically, the present-day form of ...
in the medieval period. The Swiss Confederacy constructed a road along the Rhine to Sargans in 1491/2.
The church at Gretschins was dedicated to Saint Martin in 1494, but the parish adopted 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 ...
at an early time, in the 1520s. Attempts to re-introduced the Catholic mass in 1694/4 resulted in the "Wartau conflict" (''Wartauerhandel''), which almost triggered a larger religious war in the Swiss Confederacy
The Old Swiss Confederacy or Swiss Confederacy (Modern German: ; historically , after the Reformation also , "Confederation of the Swiss") was a loose confederation of independent small states (, German or In the charters of the 14th century ...
. A second church was built in Azmoos in 1736.
The municipal coat of arms is attested on a stained glass panel dated 1632. It shows a grapevine
''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 79 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, b ...
below a gold star in a red field (''Gules a Vine Stump Vert leaved issuant from Coupeaux of the same and in chief a Mullet Or''). An unrelated municipal coat of arms, showing the castle ruins, was designed in 1939.
This was replaced in favour of the historical coat of arms in the 1970s.
In 1802, a short-lived "Republic of Wartau" was proclaimed, before the modern municipality was formed as part of the Swiss canton of St. Gallen in 1803. The Walser population which now found itself on the territory of the municipality was naturalized only in 1827, under pressure from the cantonal authorities.
Railway stations at Trübbach and Weite were built in 1858. The Rhine ferry was replaced by a bridge in 1872. The A13 motorway dates to 1967.
The prehistoric settlement and sacrifice site at Gretschins-Herrenfeld and Ochsenberg, as well as the nearby medieval castle ruins and the ''Walser
The Walser people are the speakers of the Walser German dialects, a variety of Highest Alemannic.
They inhabit the region of the Alps of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as the fringes of Italy and Austria.
The Walser people are named af ...
Rathaus (council house) auf Palfries'' are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance.
The villages of Azmoos and Oberschan as well as the hamlets of Fontnas and Gretschins are designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.
Sites of national importance
Types
The types are based on t ...
.
Politics
In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the SVP with 38.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (21.3%), the SP (15.6%) and the CVP (7.5%). In the federal election, a total of 1,405 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Unive ...
was 46.3%.
In the 2007 federal election
This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not i ...
the most popular party was the SVP which received 42.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (23.2%), the SP (15.7%) and the CVP (7.3%).[
]
Education
In Wartau about 70.2% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a ''Fachhochschule
A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts ...
'').[ Out of the total population in Wartau, , the highest education level completed by 991 people (21.1% of the population) was ]Primary
Primary or primaries may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Primary (band), from Australia
* Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea
* Primary Music, Israeli record label
Works
* ...
, while 1,759 (37.4%) have completed their secondary education, 440 (9.4%) have attended a Tertiary
Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago.
The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...
school, and 232 (4.9%) are not in school. The remainder did not answer this question.[Canton St. Gallen Statistics-Hauptergebnisse der Volkszählung 2000: Regionen- und Gemeindevergleich-Personen]
accessed 30 December 2009
Economy
Wartau is an industrial community, a municipality where manufacturing provides over a quarter of all jobs.
, there were a total of 1,886 people employed in the municipality. Of these, a total of 194 people worked in 49 businesses in the primary economic sector. There was one mid sized primary section business with a total of 71 employees. The secondary sector
In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in construction. ...
employed 771 workers in 67 separate businesses. Finally, the tertiary sector
The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...
provided 921 jobs in 229 businesses.
In 2015 a total of 7.7% of the population received social assistance.[ In 2011 the unemployment rate in the municipality was 2%.
In 2015 local hotels had a total of 5,594 overnight stays, of which 13.4% were international visitors.
In 2015 the average cantonal, municipal and church tax rate in the municipality for a couple with two children making was 4.8% while the rate for a single person making was 19.4%. In 2013 the average income in the municipality per tax payer was and the per person average was , which is less than the cantonal average of and and less than the national per tax payer average of and the per person average of .
there were 1,017 residents who worked in the municipality, while 1,407 residents worked outside Wartau and 926 people commuted into the municipality for work.
]
Religion
The parish of Gretschins was probably established in the early 13th century (first mention 1273). The church of Gretschins was rebuilt in 1494 and dedicated to Saint Martin.
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 adopted still in the 1520s, and the population resisted attempts made by Glarus
, neighboring_municipalities= Glarus Nord, Glarus Süd, Muotathal (SZ), Innerthal (SZ)
, twintowns= Wiesbaden-Biebrich (Germany)
}
Glarus (; gsw, Glaris; french: Glaris; it, Glarona; rm, Glaruna) is the capital of the canton of Glarus in S ...
in the 17th century of re-introducing Roman Catholicism.
Azmoos-Trübbach was established as a separate parish in 1743.
A Catholic church was built in Azmoos 1892, and Catholic population gradually increased, reaching parity by the later 20th century. As of the , 42% of population were Catholic and 38% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...
.
Wartau has received a significant immigrant population since the later 20th century, reflected by 7.8% (367 individuals) identifying as Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
in the 2000 census. 5.5% (261 individuals) identified as non-religious (atheist or agnostic).[
]
Heritage sites of national significance
The Gretschins-Herrenfeld and Ochsenberg prehistoric settlement and sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exi ...
site as well as the ruins of Wartau Castle and the so-called ''Walser
The Walser people are the speakers of the Walser German dialects, a variety of Highest Alemannic.
They inhabit the region of the Alps of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as the fringes of Italy and Austria.
The Walser people are named af ...
'' Rathaus (town council house) ''auf Palfries'' are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance. The villages of Azmoos and Oberschan and the hamlets
A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...
of Fontnas and Gretschins are part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.
Sites of national importance
Types
The types are based on t ...
.
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of St. Gallen
Cultural property of national significance in the canton of St. Gallen