Wartau is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
in the
Werdenberg constituency of the
Swiss canton
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the Federated state, member states of the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the form of the first three confederate allies used to be referred to as the . Two important ...
of
St. Gallen. The municipality consists of a number of villages on the eastern flank of the
Alvier group, along the left shore of the
Alpine Rhine
The Alpine Rhine Valley () is a glacial alpine valley, formed by the Alpine Rhine ( ), the part of the Rhine between the confluence of the Anterior Rhine and Posterior Rhine at Reichenau and Lake Constance. It covers three countries, with se ...
.
Geography

Wartau municipality consists of the villages of Azmoos (), Trübbach (), Weite () along the Rhine, Oberschan (), Malans (), Gretschins () and Fontnas () in the foothills of the Alvier chain, the hamlets of Plattis () and Murris (), and Matug () and environs, historically a
Walser
The Walser people are the speakers of the Walser German dialects, a variety of Highest Alemannic.
They inhabit the region of the Alps of Swiss Alps, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as the fringes of Italy and Austria.
The Walser peopl ...
Streusiedlung.
Wartau has an area, (as of the 2004/09 survey) of . Of this area, about 45.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 38.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 6.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and 9.0% is unproductive land. In the 2004/09 survey a total of or about 4.1% of the total area was covered with buildings, an increase of over the 1984 amount. About 0.19% of the total area is recreational space. Of the agricultural land, is used for orchards and vineyards, is fields and grasslands and consists of alpine grazing areas. Since 1984 the amount of agricultural land has decreased by . Over the same time period the amount of forested land has increased by . Rivers and lakes cover in the municipality.
[Regionalporträts 2017: Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 18 May 2017
The highest point of the municipality is
Alvier peak, at , the lowest point is the Rhine Valley at .
Demographics
Wartau has a population () of . , 28.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. In 2015 a small minority (321 or 6.1% of the population) was born in Germany a small minority (273 or 5.2% of the population) was born in Italy. Over the last 5 years (2010-2015) the population has changed at a rate of 3.73%. 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 2015, was 10.5, 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 8.6 per thousand residents.
[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22.5% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) are 61.1% of the population and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.4%.][ In 2015 there were 2,179 single residents, 2,443 people who were married or in a civil partnership, 243 widows or widowers and 366 divorced residents.
In 2015 there were 2,176 private households in Wartau with an average household size of 2.38 persons. In 2015 about 67.1% of all buildings in the municipality were single family homes, which is greater than the percentage in the canton (60.5%) and greater than the percentage nationally (57.4%). Of the 1,446 inhabited buildings in the municipality, in 2000, about 69.3% were single family homes and 14.2% were multiple family buildings. Additionally, about 29.6% of the buildings were built before 1919, while 11.0% were built between 1991 and 2000.][Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Thema 09 - Bau- und Wohnungswesen ]
accessed 5 May 2016 In 2014 the rate of construction of new housing units per 1000 residents was 7.66. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.82%.[
, about 23.3% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Of the foreign population, (), 84 are from ]Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, 176 are from Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, 424 are from ex-Yugoslavia
, common_name = Yugoslavia
, life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation
, p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia
, flag_p ...
, 53 are from Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
, 25 are from Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
, and 155 are from another country.[Der Kanton St. Gallen und seine Menschen in Zahlen - Ausgabe 2009]
accessed 30 December 2009 Most of the population () speaks German (88.5%), with Albanian being second most common (3.2%) and Italian being third (2.9%).
accessed 19-January-2010 Of the Swiss national languages (), 4,161 speak German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, 9 people speak French, 135 people speak Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
, and 11 people speak Romansh.[
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Colors=
id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9)
id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8)
ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45
PlotArea = top:20 left:40 bottom:20 right:35
AlignBars = justify
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:6000
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:1200 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:300 start:0
PlotData=
color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center
bar:1850 from:start till:2097 text:"2,097"
bar:1860 from:start till:2297 text:"2,297"
bar:1870 from:start till:2573 text:"2,573"
bar:1880 from:start till:2870 text:"2,870"
bar:1888 from:start till:3191 text:"3,191"
bar:1900 from:start till:3149 text:"3,149"
bar:1910 from:start till:3045 text:"3,045"
bar:1920 from:start till:3238 text:"3,238"
bar:1930 from:start till:3200 text:"3,200"
bar:1941 from:start till:3443 text:"3,443"
bar:1950 from:start till:3316 text:"3,316"
bar:1960 from:start till:3284 text:"3,284"
bar:1970 from:start till:3604 text:"3,604"
bar:1980 from:start till:3692 text:"3,692"
bar:1990 from:start till:4103 text:"4,103"
bar:2000 from:start till:4704 text:"4,704"
bar:2010 from:start till:5034 text:"5,034"
bar:2015 from:start till:5231 text:"5,231"
]
History
There are a number of Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age traces, as well traces of an early medieval estate.
The name Wartau is taken from that of Wartau Castle, built in 1225 (overlooking Gretschins). The center of the medieval manor was at Gretschins, with a church first mentioned in 1273.
The lordship of Wartau passed to the counts of Werdenberg-Heiligenberg in 1399, and further to Lucerne
Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...
in 1485 and to Glarus
Glarus (; ; ; ; ) is the capital of the canton of Glarus in Switzerland. Since 1 January 2011, the municipality of Glarus incorporates the former municipalities of Ennenda, Netstal and Riedern.[Walser
The Walser people are the speakers of the Walser German dialects, a variety of Highest Alemannic.
They inhabit the region of the Alps of Swiss Alps, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as the fringes of Italy and Austria.
The Walser peopl ...]
. High justice
High, middle and low justices are notions dating from Western feudalism to indicate descending degrees of judicial power to administer justice by the maximal punishment the holders could inflict upon their subjects and other dependents. The scale ...
lay with the county of Sargans from 1483 until 1798. There was a Rhine ferry between Trübbach and Balzers
Balzers () is a municipality and village located in southern Liechtenstein. In 2024, the village had a population of 4,806. The main part of the village is situated along the east bank of the Rhine.
History and culture
Historically, the present- ...
in the medieval period. The Swiss Confederacy constructed a road along the Rhine to Sargans in 1491/2.
The church at Gretschins was dedicated to Saint Martin in 1494, but the parish adopted the Swiss Reformation
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 ...
at an early time, in the 1520s. Attempts to re-introduced the Catholic mass in 1694/4 resulted in the "Wartau conflict" (''Wartauerhandel''), which almost triggered a larger religious war in the Swiss Confederacy
The Old Swiss Confederacy, also known as Switzerland or the Swiss Confederacy, was a loose confederation of independent small states (, German or ), initially within the Holy Roman Empire. It is the precursor of the modern state of Switzerlan ...
. A second church was built in Azmoos in 1736.
The municipal coat of arms is attested on a stained glass panel dated 1632. It shows a grapevine
''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 81 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus consists of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, bot ...
below a gold star in a red field (''Gules a Vine Stump Vert leaved issuant from Coupeaux of the same and in chief a Mullet Or''). An unrelated municipal coat of arms, showing the castle ruins, was designed in 1939.
This was replaced in favour of the historical coat of arms in the 1970s.
In 1802, a short-lived "Republic of Wartau" was proclaimed, before the modern municipality was formed as part of the Swiss canton of St. Gallen in 1803. The Walser population which now found itself on the territory of the municipality was naturalized only in 1827, under pressure from the cantonal authorities.
Railway stations at Trübbach and Weite were built in 1858. The Rhine ferry was replaced by a bridge in 1872. The A13 motorway dates to 1967.
The prehistoric settlement and sacrifice site at Gretschins-Herrenfeld and Ochsenberg, as well as the nearby medieval castle ruins and the ''Walser
The Walser people are the speakers of the Walser German dialects, a variety of Highest Alemannic.
They inhabit the region of the Alps of Swiss Alps, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as the fringes of Italy and Austria.
The Walser peopl ...
Rathaus (council house) auf Palfries'' are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance.
The villages of Azmoos and Oberschan as well as the hamlets of Fontnas and Gretschins are designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.
Sites of national importance
Types
The types are based on t ...
.
Politics
In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the SVP with 38.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (21.3%), the SP (15.6%) and the CVP (7.5%). In the federal election, a total of 1,405 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 46.3%.
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 42.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (23.2%), the SP (15.7%) and the CVP (7.3%).[
]
Education
In Wartau about 70.2% 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 ...
'').[ Out of the total population in Wartau, , the highest education level completed by 991 people (21.1% of the population) was ]Primary
Primary or primaries may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Primary (band), from Australia
* Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea
* Primary Music, Israeli record label
Work ...
, while 1,759 (37.4%) have completed their secondary education, 440 (9.4%) have attended a Tertiary
Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to:
* Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago
* Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...
school, and 232 (4.9%) are not in school. The remainder did not answer this question.[Canton St. Gallen Statistics-Hauptergebnisse der Volkszählung 2000: Regionen- und Gemeindevergleich-Personen]
accessed 30 December 2009
Economy
Wartau is an industrial community, a municipality where manufacturing provides over a quarter of all jobs.
, there were a total of 1,886 people employed in the municipality. Of these, a total of 194 people worked in 49 businesses in the primary economic sector. There was one mid sized primary section business with a total of 71 employees. The secondary sector
In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in constructi ...
employed 771 workers in 67 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 921 jobs in 229 businesses.
In 2015 a total of 7.7% of the population received social assistance.[ In 2011 the unemployment rate in the municipality was 2%.
In 2015 local hotels had a total of 5,594 overnight stays, of which 13.4% were international visitors.
In 2015 the average cantonal, municipal and church tax rate in the municipality for a couple with two children making was 4.8% while the rate for a single person making was 19.4%. In 2013 the average income in the municipality per tax payer was and the per person average was , which is less than the cantonal average of and and less than the national per tax payer average of and the per person average of .
there were 1,017 residents who worked in the municipality, while 1,407 residents worked outside Wartau and 926 people commuted into the municipality for work.
]
Religion
The parish of Gretschins was probably established in the early 13th century (first mention 1273). The church of Gretschins was rebuilt in 1494 and dedicated to Saint Martin.
The Swiss Reformation
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 ...
was adopted still in the 1520s, and the population resisted attempts made by Glarus
Glarus (; ; ; ; ) is the capital of the canton of Glarus in Switzerland. Since 1 January 2011, the municipality of Glarus incorporates the former municipalities of Ennenda, Netstal and Riedern.[Swiss Reformed Church
The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...]
.
Wartau has received a significant immigrant population since the later 20th century, reflected by 7.8% (367 individuals) identifying as Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
in the 2000 census. 5.5% (261 individuals) identified as non-religious (atheist or agnostic).[
]
Heritage sites of national significance
The Gretschins-Herrenfeld and Ochsenberg prehistoric settlement and sacrifice
Sacrifice is an act or offering made to a deity. A sacrifice can serve as propitiation, or a sacrifice can be an offering of praise and thanksgiving.
Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Gree ...
site as well as the ruins of Wartau Castle and the so-called ''Walser
The Walser people are the speakers of the Walser German dialects, a variety of Highest Alemannic.
They inhabit the region of the Alps of Swiss Alps, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as the fringes of Italy and Austria.
The Walser peopl ...
'' Rathaus
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...
(town council house) ''auf Palfries'' are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance. The villages of Azmoos and Oberschan and the hamlets
A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...
of Fontnas and Gretschins are part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.
Sites of national importance
Types
The types are based on t ...
.
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of St. Gallen
Cultural property of national significance in the canton of St. Gallen
Liechtenstein–Switzerland border crossings
Populated places on the Rhine