Appenzell

Appenzell, the political capital of the Inner Rhoden half of the Swiss canton of Appenzell. It is built in a smiling green hollow on the left bank of the Sitter stream, which is formed by the union of several mountain torrents descending from the Säntis. By light railways it is 12½ m. from St Gall past Gais or 20½ m. past Herisau. Its chief streets are paved, but it is rather a large village than a town, though in 1900 it had 4574 inhabitants, practically all German-speaking and Romanists. It has a stately modern parish church (attached to a Gothic choir), a small but very ancient chapel of the abbots of St Gall (whose summer residence was this village), and two Capuchin convents (one for men, founded in 1588, and one for women, founded in 1613). Among the archives, kept in the sacristy of the church, are several banners captured by the Appenzellers in former days, among them one taken in 1406 at Imst, near Lanedeck, with the inscription Hundert Teufel, though popularly this number is multiplied a thousandfold. In the principal square the Landsgemeinde (or cantonal democratic assembly) is held annually in the open air on the last Sunday in April. The inhabitants are largely employed in the production of embroidery, though also engaged in various pastoral occupations. About 2½ m. by road south-east of Appenzell is Weissbad, a well-known goat’s whey cure establishment, while 1½ hours above it is the quaint little chapel of Wildkirchli, built (1648) in a rock cavern, on the way to the Säntis.