Eichberg

Geschichte

Eichberg is a municipality in the Wahlkreis (constituency) of Rheintal in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.HistoryEichberg is first mentioned in 891 as under the Romansh name of Hermentines. In 1282 it was mentioned as Aichilberch, and in 1290 as Aitberge.GeographyEichberg has an area, of 5.5km2. Of this area, 47.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 42.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 9.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.5%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes).The municipality is located in the Rheintal Wahlkreis. It is a scattered settlement on the south-east edge of the Hirschberg. It consists of the village of Eichberg-dorf and the hamlets of Au, Hölzlisberg and part of Hinterforsts (which is shared with Altstätten).Coat of armsThe blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent an Oak branch Vert with three leaves and two acorns. This is an example of canting, where the oak leaf is a visual pun on the German word for oak (Eichen) which forms part of the village name (lit. Oak Mountain).DemographicsEichberg has a population of., about 13.1% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Of the foreign population, 43 are from Germany, 10 are from Italy, 58 are from ex-Yugoslavia, 22 are from Austria, and 10 are from another country. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 13.2%. Most of the population speaks German (95.0%), with Albanian being second most common ( 2.3%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 0.5%). Of the Swiss national languages, 1,203 speak German, 2 people speak French, 5 people speak Italian, and 1 person speaks Romansh.