Switzerland - Werdenberg

Werdenberg - located in the canton of St. Gallen in northeastern Switzerland - was first mentioned in a document dated 1289. Originally it was a fortified town and one of only a few to be granted market rights. It is the only wooden medieval settlement in Switzerland to have retained its town-like character.

Werdenberg has around forty houses which have remained unharmed by major fires. The medieval timber-frame settlement exhibits an extraordinary variety of building designs. Vertical timbered and half-timbered buildings, along with squared log cabins can be found there. Walking in the ‘city’ it looks more like an open air museum, although it is still inhabited and most of the houses are privately owned. With less than hundred inhabitants it is most probably the smallest city in Switzerland.

The town is dominated by Castle Werdenberg on a top of a hill (PiP1), which has a museum. A second regional museum is housed in the so called Schlangenhaus (Snake House) in the settlement itself (PiP2).