Lichtensteig

Lichtensteig first appears in a document in 1228, as Liehtvnsteige, a fortified place of the counts of Toggenburg. A town reeve is mentioned from 1310; in 1400, Count Donat granted it a first charter of liberties, giving it town rights, a market, an administration, a court and the right to mint coin — the small town then had 400 inhabitants, governed by a council of twelve, six of whom were elected yearly by the burghers. A town school is recorded in 1425.

After the Old Zurich War, Prince-Abbot Ulrich Rösch of St Gallen bought the county of Toggenburg, and with it Lichtensteig, in 1468; the town became the seat of the abbey's reeve — Albrecht Miles, a native of the town, was the first to hold the office. The abbot confirmed the charters of liberties in 1469. Until 1798, the Toggenburg reeves of the Abbey of St Gallen resided there, and the town hosted the Toggenburg regional council, court and council of war, as well as, from 1529, the Reformed synod, after the majority of burghers had joined the Reformation in 1524.

The historic town — the 'Städtli' — keeps its oldest houses, dated to the first half of the 15th century, built into the town wall. From 1531, Catholics and Protestants had shared a single church building, until each confession built its own church, in 1967 for the Reformed church and in 1970 for the Catholic church of St Gallus, the latter designed by architect Walter M. Förderer and built in concrete on a hill above the old town. Lichtensteig has belonged to the association Switzerland's Most Beautiful Villages since 2016 and received the Wakker Prize in 2023.

The town has been served by the Toggenburg railway since 24 June 1870, and by the Bodensee-Toggenburg line from 1 October 1910. Every August, the Jazztage make Lichtensteig the venue of Eastern Switzerland's largest jazz festival.

Why this place is remarkable

What Lichtensteig keeps is the continuity of a power: a fortified town of the counts of Toggenburg from 1228, it passed in 1468 to the Abbey of St Gallen, whose reeves resided there until 1798 — and the Städtli they administered still holds its 15th-century houses, recognised in 2016 by the association Switzerland's Most Beautiful Villages and, in 2023, by the Wakker Prize.

History and origin

A fortified place of the counts of Toggenburg attested in 1228, Lichtensteig gained its first charters of liberties in 1400. The Prince-Abbot of St Gallen bought the county in 1468 and stationed his reeve there until 1798; the majority of burghers joined the Reformation in 1524, and Catholics and Protestants shared a single church building from 1531 until two separate churches were built, in 1967 and 1970.