Lichtensteig

Geschichte

Lichtensteig is a municipality in the Wahlkreis (constituency) of Toggenburg in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.HistoryLichtensteig is first mentioned in 1228 as Liehtvnsteige. In 1310 it was mentioned as Liechtensteig.GeographyLichtensteig has an area, of 2.8km2. Of this area, 35.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 44.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 18.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (1.4%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes).The municipality is located in the Toggenburg Wahlkreis on the right side of the Thur at the foot of the Wasserfluh. The ruins of Neu-Toggenburg castle are on a rocky outcropping above the village.Coat of armsThe blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Gules and Sable overall a letter L OrDemographicsLichtensteig has a population of., about 19.1% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Of the foreign population, 31 are from Germany, 82 are from Italy, 113 are from ex-Yugoslavia, 13 are from Austria, 43 are from Turkey, and 91 are from another country. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -5.4%. Most of the population speaks German (89.6%), with Italian being second most common ( 2.7%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 2.0%). Of the Swiss national languages, 1,697 speak German, 5 people speak French, 52 people speak Italian, and 1 person speaks Romansh.