Glarus (; ; ; ; ) is the capital of the

canton of Glarus The canton of Glarus ( ; ; ; ) is a cantons of Switzerland, canton in east-central Switzerland. The capital is Glarus. The population speaks a variety of Alemannic German. The majority of the population (81%) identifies as Christianity in Switzer ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. Since 1 January 2011, the municipality of Glarus incorporates the former municipalities of Ennenda,

Netstal Netstal is a former Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the canton of Glarus in Switzerland. Effective from 1 January 2011, Netstal is part of the municipality of Glarus. History Netstal is first mentioned in 1289 as ''Netstal''. Geogr ...

and

Riedern Riedern is a former Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Glarus (canton), Glarus in Switzerland. Effective from 1 January 2011, Riedern is part of the municipality of Glarus. History Riedern is fi ...

.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 18 February 2011 Glarus lies on the river

Linth The Linth (pronounced "lint") is a Switzerland, Swiss river that rises near the Linthal, Glarus, village of Linthal in the mountains of the cantons of Switzerland, canton of canton of Glarus, Glarus, and eventually flows into the Obersee (Züri ...

between the foot of the Glärnisch (part of the Schwyzer Alps) to the west and the

Schilt The Schilt (2,299 m) is a mountain of the Glarus Alps The Glarus Alps () are a mountain range in central Switzerland. They are bordered by the Uri Alps and the Schwyz Alps to the west, the Lepontine Alps to the south, the Appenzell Alps to ...

(

Glarus Alps The Glarus Alps () are a mountain range in central Switzerland. They are bordered by the Uri Alps and the Schwyz Alps to the west, the Lepontine Alps to the south, the Appenzell Alps to the northeast. The eastern part of the Glarus Alps contains ...

) to the east. Very few buildings built before the fire of 1861 remain. Wood, textile, and plastics, as well as printing, are the dominant industries. The symbol of the city is the neo-romanesque city church.

History

Glarus is first mentioned in the early 9th century in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

as ''Clarona''. In 1178 it was first mentioned in German as ''Glarus''. On 10 February 878, the Emperor

Charles the Fat Charles the Fat (839 – 13 January 888) was the emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 881 to 887. A member of the Carolingian dynasty, Charles was the youngest son of Louis the German and Hemma, and a great-grandson of Charlemagne. He was t ...

gave his wife Richgard or Richardis the monasteries of Säckingen, of St. Felix and of Regula in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

as a royal estate. This land grant included extensive political rights and a large estate. This estate covered land in the Rhine and Frick valleys, the southern Hotzenwald, land in Zürich, along Lake Walen and the valley of Glarus. Glarus remained under the Säckingen Abbey until 1395 (intermittently under the overlordship of either the Counts of Lenzburg and Kyburg and/or

Raetia Curiensis Raetia Curiensis (in Latin; , ) was an early medieval province in Central Europe, named after the preceding Roman province of '' Raetia prima'' which retained its Romansh culture during the Migration Period, while the adjacent territories in the ...

), when the Glarus valley broke away from the abbey and became independent. It became the capital of the Linth valley in 1419. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the valley began to be industrialized.

Huldrych Zwingli Huldrych or Ulrich Zwingli (1 January 1484 – 11 October 1531) was a Swiss Christian theologian, musician, and leader of the Reformation in Switzerland. Born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swis ...

a leader of the

Reformation in Switzerland The Protestant Reformation in Switzerland was promoted initially by Huldrych Zwingli, who gained the support of the magistrate, Mark Reust, and the population of Zürich in the 1520s. It led to significant changes in civil life and state matte ...

served in his first,

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, ecclesiastical post in Glarus, starting around 1506. He served there for ten years. It was in Glarus, whose soldiers were used as mercenaries in Europe, that Zwingli became involved in politics. The Swiss Confederation was embroiled in various campaigns with its neighbours: the French, the Habsburgs, and the Papal States. Zwingli placed himself solidly on the side of the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

. In return,

Pope Julius II Pope Julius II (; ; born Giuliano della Rovere; 5 December 144321 February 1513) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1503 to his death, in February 1513. Nicknamed the Warrior Pope, the Battle Pope or the Fearsome ...

honoured Zwingli by providing him with an annual pension. He took the role of chaplain in several campaigns in Italy, including the Battle of Novara in 1513. However, the decisive defeat of the Swiss in the Battle of Marignano caused a shift in mood in Glarus in favour of the French rather than the pope. Zwingli, the papal partisan, found himself in a difficult position and he decided to retreat to

Einsiedeln Einsiedeln () is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality and Districts of Switzerland#Schwyz, district in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland known for its monastery, the Benedictine Einsiedeln Abbey, established in the 10th century. Histor ...

in the

canton of Schwyz The canton of Schwyz ( ; ; ; ) is a Cantons of Switzerland, canton in central Switzerland between the Swiss Alps, Alps in the south, Lake Lucerne to the west and Lake Zürich in the north, centred on and named after the town of Schwyz. It is one ...

. While he was not a reformer at Glarus, there he began to develop the ideas that would lead to the break with the Catholic Church in

. In 1528 the Reformation gained a foothold in Glarus, directed by Zwingli in Zürich. Even though he had preached in Glarus for 10 years, the town remained strongly Catholic. However, following the Second war of Kappel in 1531 both the Catholic and Protestant residents were given the right to worship in town. This led to both religious groups using the town church simultaneously, an arrangement that caused numerous problems. By the 18th century both the groups shared the church but had separate organs. In 1697 there were two financially and theologically independent parishes meeting in the city church. Following the French invasion in 1798, Glarus became the capital of the Canton of Linth in the Helvetic Republic. The administration of the Canton moved into Glarus. However, the new administrators had difficulties in establishing and enforcing any new regulations. In August 1802 the administrators of the new Canton left Glarus for

Rapperswil Rapperswil (Swiss German: or ;Andres Kristol, ''Rapperswil SG (See)'' in: ''Dictionnaire toponymique des communes suisses – Lexikon der schweizerischen Gemeindenamen – Dizionario toponomastico dei comuni svizzeri (DTS, LSG)'', Centre de dial ...

due to the difficulties they had faced in Glarus. In 1803, with the

Act of Mediation The Act of Mediation () was issued by Napoleon Bonaparte, French Consulate, First Consul of the French Republic on 19 February 1803 to abolish the Helvetic Republic, which had existed since the invasion of Old Swiss Confederacy, Switzerland by F ...

, the Canton of Linth was dissolved and Glarus became the capital of the smaller Canton of Glarus. In 1859, the railway reached Glarus from Weesen. The extension to Schwanden and Linthal opened in 1879. The town created the Emigration Society and sent Judge Niklaus Dürst and blacksmith Fridolin Streif to search for land to settle in North America in 1845. Later that year, 131 colonists from Glarus settled New Glarus, Wisconsin, a town which still holds onto its Swiss roots and enjoys a strong relationship with Glarus. On the 10/11 May 1861, the town was devastated by a fire that was fanned by a violent Föhn or south wind, rushing down from the high mountains through the natural funnel formed by the Linth valley. The total loss is estimated at half a million sterling, of which about £100,000 were made up by subscriptions that poured in from every side. About two-thirds of Glarus (593 buildings) were destroyed in the big fire. After this incident, Glarus was rebuilt in block fashion according to construction plans by Bernhard Simon and Johann Caspar Wolff. In 1864, the first European labor law to protect workers was introduced in Glarus, prohibiting workers from working more than 12 hours a day.

Geography

The town is located in the ''Glarner Mittelland'' on a broad valley floor between the Glärnisch and the

. The municipality Glarus before 2011 had an area of . Of this area, 23% was used for agricultural purposes, while 31.4% was forested; of the rest of the land, 2.7% was settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (42.9%) was non-productive (2006 figures). With the incorporation of Ennenda,

and

in 2011, the municipality Glarus now has an area of . Based on the 2004/09 survey, about 26.3% of the total area is used for agricultural purposes, while 34.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 4.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and 35.2% is unproductive land. Over the past two decades (1979/85-2004/09) the amount of land that is settled has increased by and the agricultural land has decreased by .Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Regional portraits
accessed 2 May 2016

Demographics

Glarus has a population () of . , 24.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 3 years (2010-2013) the population has changed at a rate of 2.07%. The

birth rate Birth rate, also known as natality, is the total number of live childbirth, human births per 1,000 population for a given period divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registr ...

in the municipality, in 2013, was 9.8 while the

death rate Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of d ...

was 8.4 per thousand residents. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) are 61.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18.3%. Most of the population () speaks German (86.0%), with Italian being second most common (4.8%) and Albanian being third (2.6%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 10-Sep-2009

Historical population

The historical population is given in the following table:

Economy

, there were a total of 8,148 people employed in the municipality. Of these, a total of 175 people worked in 63 businesses in the primary economic sector. The secondary sector employed 2,479 workers in 200 separate businesses. Finally, the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the ...

provided 5,494 jobs in 923 businesses. In 2013 a total of 2.% of the population received social assistance.

Politics

In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the BDP with 49.7% of the vote, followed by the SP with 47.7%. The remaining 2.6% went to unaffiliated or minor party candidates. In the federal election, a total of 3,250 votes were cast, and the

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

was 41.1%. The 2015 election saw a large change in the voting when compared to 2011. The percentage of the vote received by the SP increased sharply from 28.9% in 2011 to 47.7% in 2015, while the percentage that the BDP dropped from 57.7% to 49.7%.

Crime

In 2014 the crime rate, of the over 200 crimes listed in the

Swiss Criminal Code The Swiss Criminal Code (SR/RS 311, , , , ) is a portion of the third part (SR/RS 3) of the Swiss law, internal Swiss law ("Private law - Administration of civil justice - Enforcement") that regulates the criminal code in Switzerland. The orig ...

(running from murder, robbery and assault to accepting bribes and election fraud), in Glarus was 48.2 per thousand residents. This rate is only 74.6% of the average rate in the entire country. During the same period, the rate of drug crimes was 10.2 per thousand residents, which is similar to the rate in Glarus Süd, but about twice as high as the rate in Glarus Nord.

Education

In Glarus about 71.3% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a ''

Fachhochschule A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...

'').

Transport

Glarus railway station is on the Ziegelbrücke to Linthal railway line. It is served by the Zürich S-Bahn service S25 between

and Linthal, and by the St. Gallen S-Bahn service S6 between

and Schwanden. both services operate once per hour, combining to provide two trains per hour between Ziegelbrücke and Schwanden. The stations of Ennenda and

are also in the municipality, and served by the same trains.

Climate

Between 1991 and 2020 Glarus had an average of 142.2 days of rain per year and on average received of

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

. The wettest month was July during which time Glarus received an average of of precipitation. During this month there was precipitation for an average of 14.8 days. The months with the most days of precipitation were June to August. The driest month of the year was February with an average of of precipitation over 9.5 days.

Gallery

File:Glarus.jpg, Town center of Glarus File:Glarus rathaus 2005-07-22.jpg, Kantonsparlement File:Picswiss GL-13-05.jpg, Landsgemeindeplatz File:Glarus-Glärnisch.jpg, Glärnisch File:Bahnhof Glarus.JPG, Glarus railway station

International relations

Twin towns – sister cities

Glarus is twinned with: *

Wiesbaden-Biebrich Biebrich is a borough of the city of Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany. With over 38,000 inhabitants, it is the most-populated of Wiesbaden's boroughs. It is located south of the city center on the Rhine River, opposite the Mainz borough of Mombach. Biebr ...

* New Glarus,

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

Notable people

* Anna Göldi (1734 – 1782 in Glarus) the last person to be executed in Europe for

witchcraft Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...

* Heinrich Hössli (1784 in Glarus – 1864 in Winterthur) a Swiss hatter and author *

Johann Jakob von Tschudi Johann Jakob von Tschudi (25 July 1818 – 8 October 1889) was a Switzerland, Swiss naturalist, explorer, and diplomat. He is known for his travels in South America, his scientific contributions to zoology and anthropology, and his diplomatic se ...

(1818 in Glarus – 1889) a Swiss naturalist, explorer and diplomat * Johann Jakob Blumer (1819 in Glarus – 1875) a Swiss statesman * Franz Joseph Untersee (1858 in Glarus - 1927) a Swiss-American architect who designed many Roman Catholic churches in the US * Roslï Näf (1911 in Glarus – 1996) a Swiss Red Cross nurse during the Holocaust * Rudi Schmid (1922 in Glarus – 2007) an American medical researcher specializing in

hepatology Hepatology is the branch of medicine that incorporates the study of liver, gallbladder, biliary tree, and pancreas as well as management of their disorders. Although traditionally considered a sub-specialty of gastroenterology, rapid expansion ...

* Bernhard Hoesli (1923 in Glarus – 1984) a Swiss architect and collage artist * Erwin C. Dietrich (1930 in Glarus – 2018) film director, producer, actor and cinematographers IMDb Database
retrieved 10 February 2019 * Eveline Hasler (born 1933 in Glarus) a Swiss writer * Marianne Horak (born 1944 in Glarus) a Swiss-Australian entomologist who specialises in Australian

lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

* Giaco Schiesser (born 1953 in Glarus) professor for cultural theory and media theory at

Zurich University of the Arts Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK, ) has approximately 2,500 students, which makes it the largest arts university in Switzerland. The university was established in 2007, following the merger between Zurich's School of Art and Design (HGKZ) and ...

* Werner Marti (born 1957 in Glarus) a Swiss lawyer and politician * Ruedi Noser (born 1961 in Glarus) a Swiss businessman and politician *

Tim Krohn Tim Krohn (born 9 February 1965) is an author of Swiss literature, recipient of the 1994 Conrad-Ferdinand-Meyer-Preis. Born in Wiedenbrück, North Rhine-Westphalia, Krohn grew up in canton of Glarus, Glarus. He interrupted his studies of German s ...

(born 1965) an author of Swiss literature, grew up in Glarus

Sport

* Paul Fischli (born 1945 in Glarus) a Swiss former football player and manager * Fritz Künzli (1946 in Glarus – 2019) a retired Swiss football striker. * Ekkehard Fasser (1952 in Glarus – 2021) a bobsledder who competed in the

1988 Winter Olympics The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Calgary 1988 were a multi-sport event held from February 13 to 28, 1988, with Calgary, Calgary, Alberta as the main host city. This marks the m ...

* René Botteron (born 1954 in Glarus) a Swiss former football midfielder, over 330 club caps * Urs Sonderegger (born 1964 in Glarus) a Swiss entrepreneur and racing driver * Valeria Spälty (born 1983 in Glarus) a Swiss curler, silver medallist at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...

* Jan Hauser (born 1985 in Glarus) a Swiss curler, competed in the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

* Colin Stüssi (born 1993 in Glarus) a Swiss cyclist

References

External links

*
Official Web site
* {{Authority control Glarus (capital) Cantonal capitals of Switzerland Cities in Switzerland Municipalities of the canton of Glarus