Toggenburg

County of Toggenburg Grafschaft Toggenburg
10th century–1468
Coat of arms
The old Bestandteile of the Canton of St. Gall, showing the County of Toggenburg in pink.
Status	State of the Holy Roman Empire
Capital	Lichtensteig
Government	Principality
Historical era	Middle Ages
• Established	before 1044 10th century
• Partitioned	1394
• Comital line extinct	1436
• Old Zürich War	1440–46
• Inherited by Raron	Uncertain
• Sold to the Abbot of St Gall	1468
Succeeded by Abbey of St. Gall

For other uses, see Toggenburg (disambiguation).

Map of the Canton of St. Gallen, showing the Wahlkreis of Toggenburg, centre

Toggenburg is the name given to the upper valley of the river Thur, in the Swiss Canton of St. Gallen. Currently, it is one of the eight constituencies into which the canton is divided.

The valley descends in a northwestern direction from the watershed between the Rhine and the Thur, and is enclosed on the northeast by the chain of the Säntis (8216 ft.) and on the southwest by that of the Churfirsten (7576 ft.) and of the Speer (6411 ft.). It is a fertile valley of about 45 kilometers in length from the source of the river to Wil on the railway line between Winterthur and St. Gallen. The upper half is traversed by an excellent road, while from Nesslau there is a railway to Wil (155 m.).

At Wildhaus, the highest village (3632 ft.), the house wherein Huldrych Zwingli, the Swiss Reformer, was born in 1484, is still shown. Other villages are Lichtensteig, Kirchberg and Wattwil.

The extinction of the main line of the counts of Toggenburg (1436) led to the Old Zürich War (1440–46) ultimately resulting in the temporary expulsion of Zurich from the Swiss confederacy. Eventually, the Toggenburg passed to the lord of Raron (in Valais), who sold it in 1468 to the abbot of St. Gall.

The Toggenburg war of 1712 resulted in a balance of power between Catholic and Protestant cantons, ultimately leading to the formation of Switzerland as a federal state.

Gallery

• The 7 Churfirsten (view from Alpstein with Toggenburg below)
  The 7 Churfirsten (view from Alpstein with Toggenburg below)
• 
  Toggenburg (view from castle Iberg in Wattwil)

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• http://www.toggenburg.org tourist information in German