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. The main tourist attraction is the Abbey of St. Gall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its renowned library contains books which date to the 9th century. 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. The town is nicely situated between Lake Constance and the mountains of the Appenzell Alps (with the Säntis as the highest peak at 2502 metres). It therefore offers excellent recreation areas nearby. 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. For example, the entire foundation of the train station and its plaza are based on hundreds of piles. 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. World War I and the Great Depression thereafter let the St. Gallen embroidery fall into a second large crisis. Only in the 1950s a slight recovery started in the textile industry. Nowadays, only a small textile industry can survive in St. Gallen because of high specialization and the production of powerful embroidery machines. St. Gallen embroideries (e.g. by Akris) are still in high demand by the creators of Paris Haute Couture.

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Wind2.06 m/s
Cloudiness75 %
Temperature (min/max)-1/2 °C
Pressure1006 hpa
Humidity81 %
Last update: 26 Apr 2024 @ 06:31

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