1'107 m
St. Gallen / Appenzell Inner Rhodes
The St. Anton is the high point of a panoramic ridge road, running some six kilometres between the Ruppenpass and the village of Oberegg in Appenzell Innerrhoden, at 1,110 metres high above the St. Galler Rheintal.
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DESCRIPTION
The St. Anton is the high point of a panoramic ridge road, running some six kilometres between the Ruppenpass and the village of Oberegg in Appenzell Innerrhoden, at 1,110 metres high above the St. Galler Rheintal. It is a panorama road in the best sense: eastward the eye carries across the Rhine valley into the mountains of Austria, the Bregenzerwald and the Rätikon; northward it reaches the Bodensee; and to the southwest it sweeps over the Appenzell hills to the Alpstein and the Säntis. The locals simply call the spot "Töni".
The "Anton" is St. Anthony of Padua, to whom the little chapel at the summit is dedicated. Its origins are lost, but legend holds that after a battle on the nearby Honegg in 1428 – where the Appenzellers beat back a raiding party of Frederick VII of Toggenburg – the fallen were buried "on the Egg with St. Anthony", and weary Rhine-valley folk would rest at the wayside shrine to bring their cares to the saint on the road to St. Gallen. Struck by lightning and destroyed in 1931, the chapel was reconsecrated in 1932. Beside it today stand a café, an inn and the Kulturhotel Alpenhof, which keeps the library of the artist Andreas Züst – while three cycle routes, along with walkers and motorcyclists, climb to one of the loveliest viewpoints in eastern Switzerland.
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