Hemberg

Hemberg clings to the flank of the summit that gave it its name, in the St Gallen Toggenburg: the Hemberg mountain divides the water running down to the Thur from the water that joins the Necker, and the village lies on the Necker side, the river that waters it. The former commune ranges from 709 to 1,139 metres — its high point is the Obere Barenegg — over 20 square kilometres, 5 of them forest. Since 1 January 2023 Hemberg has no longer been a commune: with Oberhelfenschwil it was attached to that of Neckertal.

The village bears the mark of an uncommon confessional history. Johannes Dörig introduced the Reformation here in 1522; from 1526 Hemberg was a parity village, and the two confessions worshipped in the same place. The arrangement lasted more than two and a half centuries: the Reformed church was not built until 1779, by Johann Jakob Haltiner, and the Catholic church in 1782. The parish itself goes back to 1214, and its bell tower keeps a medieval substructure beneath a Baroque onion dome.

Embroidery and weaving brought prosperity from the 18th century onwards, and population with it: around 2,000 inhabitants and 280 houses were counted about 1836. The decline of spinning and weaving reversed the movement in the second half of the 19th century — 1,348 inhabitants in 1900 then 944 in 2000 — and winter tourism, cross-country skiing in particular, only cushioned the fall in the 20th century.

Why this place is remarkable

What sets Hemberg apart is not its size but two divides laid one over the other. The village holds to the flank of the mountain that separates the basins of the Thur and the Necker. And it lived through another, rarer division: from 1526 Catholics and Protestants worshipped there in the same building, for more than two and a half centuries, before two churches were at last built three years apart, in 1779 and in 1782.

History and origin

Hemberg appears in the records from 878. The parish church of Saint John the Baptist and Saint Andrew goes back to a foundation of 1214; its nave and choir were rebuilt in 1781 and 1782 by Ferdinand Beer, while the bell tower keeps a medieval substructure beneath a Baroque onion dome and lantern. The Reformed church, raised in 1779 by Johann Jakob Haltiner, sets a single nave behind a front tower and keeps stuccowork and a Louis XVI gallery inside. At Schwanzbrugg, a house dated 1776 carries Rococo paintings on its gable.