Walenstadt

Geschichte

Walenstadt is a municipality in the Wahlkreis (constituency) of Sarganserland in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. It is located on Lake Walen (also known as "Lake Walenstadt").GeographyWalenstadt has an area, of 45.7km2. Of this area, 35.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 40.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 5.3% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (19.2%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes). Until 1952 Walenstadt was known as Wallenstadt.Lime glacial erratic show that the Seez valley (Seeztal) was 1000 m high covered with ice during the last ice age. As the ice began to melt, wild brooks arise. The south side from the Churfirsten falls almost vertical.The community Walenstadt is divided in five towns: Walenstadt, Walenstadtberg, Knoblisbühl, Berschis and Tscherlach. In Walenstadtberg is a famous building: The Paxmal, built by Karl Bickel. All towns are linked by a public transport bus system. Walenstadt has a rail station.Coat of armsThe blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a fortified civic gates Argent.DemographicsWalenstadt has a population of., about 18.1% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Of the foreign population, 73 are from Germany, 148 are from Italy, 400 are from ex-Yugoslavia, 24 are from Austria, 95 are from Turkey, and 107 are from another country. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 6.8%. Most of the population speaks German (88.5%), with Albanian being second most common ( 2.9%) and Italian being third ( 2.4%). Of the Swiss national languages, 4,010 speak German, 22 people speak French, 110 people speak Italian, and 13 people speak Romansh.