Gentle Hills, Deep Ravines and the Ruppen Pass

Above are the hills of the Appenzellerland and below the flat Rhine valley – on the hike from St. Anton down to Landmark, the border between the inner-Rhoden district of Oberegg and the St. Gallen district of Altstätten is near. The route back leads through the Ausserrhoden municipality of Wald, with a constant up and down through forests and meadows. The typical scattered settlement farms lie on the hills.

The area around Landmark is hilly. In the hollow between Chozeren and Kellersberg, the Ruppen road connects the Appenzell town of Trogen with Altstätten in the St. Gallen Rhine valley. The former mule track here was expanded to a simple country road in the 16th century and widened to a broad mountain pass road at the end of the 1830s. In the following two decades, an express mail coach ran daily from St. Gallen to Feldkirch: The Ruppen was the shortest connection between the two then important market towns. From the slopes east of Landmark, several springs flow to creeks that unite in the ravine into the Goldach. From the still inconspicuous stream in Sägli, it later becomes a substantial creek, winding for 18.5 kilometers through sometimes deep gorges northwest towards Lake Constance.

Text & images Jolanda Spengler