1'278 m
St. Gallen / Appenzell Outer Rhodes
The Schwägalp Pass climbs to 1,278 metres between Nesslau-Neu St. Johann in the Toggenburg and Urnäsch in Appenzell Ausserrhoden, and in the rolling hill country of the Appenzell it is the one crossing with a truly alpine character – for it runs directly beneath the 2,502-metre Säntis, the great landmark of eastern Switzerland.
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The Schwägalp Pass climbs to 1,278 metres between Nesslau-Neu St. Johann in the Toggenburg and Urnäsch in Appenzell Ausserrhoden, and in the rolling hill country of the Appenzell it is the one crossing with a truly alpine character – for it runs directly beneath the 2,502-metre Säntis, the great landmark of eastern Switzerland. The road is young: until then the two valleys were joined only by a mule path. The 21-kilometre pass road was built in the 1930s as the approach to the new Säntis cable car, partly as Depression-era relief work for some 200 unemployed men, and it opened in a rush of traffic on 1 August 1935.
The cable car, opened that same year, still climbs from the Schwägalp to the summit, from which – on a clear day – one can see into six countries: Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, France and Italy. Below, the Schwägalp is classic Appenzell alpine-farming country, its show dairy turning over a million litres of summer milk into cheese, its slopes alive each season with the ceremonial cattle drives. And since 1921 the pass has hosted the Schwägalpschwinget, a traditional Swiss wrestling festival that draws over 12,000 spectators to the sawdust ring beneath the Säntis each summer. A pass that is really a grandstand at the foot of a mountain.
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