On The Appenzell Culture Trail between Degersheim and Herisau

Wednesday March 4, 2026 -- This day we once again did a very decent hike, heading out to the Toggenburg region between Cantons St.Gallen and Appenzell, to walk on a trail called the "Appenzeller Kulturweg", or "Appenzell Culture Trail", where we enjoyed a wide variety of landscapes including a walk through a gorge, an historical wooden covered bridge, a fortress ruins, and a little village with a 400-year old former city town hall building.

We started in Degersheim in St.Gallen, where we have been often before, and ended up in Herisau in Canton St.Gallen. We were a little worried that it might be a cold day with forecast "Bise" (northeasterly) winds, and lower temperatures than in several other places, but as it turned out, it was quite the perfect weather for this kind of hike, as it might have gotten quite hot on the uphill sections! 

As is often the case, we crossed Canton borders on this hike, starting in Canton St.Gallen and ending in Canton Appenzell (Ausserrhoden), and actually walking right along the border through the Wissbach Gorge, a lovely riverside walk. 

Starting at 10:50 in Degersheim (after a 2-hour trip) we are headed toward Herisau via the Wissbachschlucht (Wissbach Gorge), although we are planning a couple of detours along the way, so the hike is longer than 2½ hours.

Heading up the road in Degersheim we pass the Evangelical Church, which looks like a castle. We did not go into it this time, as I had visited both this church and the Catholic church on the other side of town, on a hike I did also starting here almost exactly a year ago in April 2025. 

Spring flowers along the way

Styles of the houses in this region called the Toggenburg. (Technically, we are just outside of the official Toggenburg borders). 

Our detour took up up above the town of Degersheim into the farming region. Here we passed via a farm called Wannen. 

A pleasant walk through the farmland regions near Appenzell (In about four weeks we will have some pretty nice blossoming trees here!)

There was a bit of a cold wind blowing, and I had to use a scarf because my ears were cold. 

The main spring flowers right now are the snow bells .

An hour after leaving the train station in Degersheim, we reached the main road in a small community called Tal. From here we enter the Wissbach Gorge and should have another two hours to walk to Herisau. Here we have joined the Regional Trail no.22: "Kulturspur Appenzellerland" (Appenzell Culture Trail). 

Officially, this Stage of the Appenzell Culture Trail starts in Schwellbrunn (which we still have to visit!) but we started closer by and joined the trail at the Wissbach Gorge. The information here is interesting, though. 

The river here is called the Wissbach, and it run through the gorge of the same name, and forms the Canton border between St.Gallen where we are currently located, and Appenzell Ausserrhoden on the other side. Along the way we crossed the river a couple of times back and forth across these borders.

The Wissbach stream / river forms the border between St.Gallen and Appenzell Ausserrhoden. (We have just crossed from St.Gallen to Appenzell AR). 

Along the "Culture Trail" we passed placards with information, as in this case: Between 1892 and 1916, three small power plants were constructed at the far end of the river, which delivered electricity to two mills and a sawmill. The upper left photo is the bridge we crossed from Canton St.Gallen to Appenzell AR, and a few meters further on, we crossed the next bridge back to St.Gallen!

A lovely walk through the Wissbach Gorge. 

At just after noon we reached this lake in the Wissbach Gorge with a very convenient bench for our picnic lunch! We can just imagine how much prettier this would be a few weeks later when everything is green. 

After the lake, the river drops in a waterfall and this lovely covered staircase makes it fun to walk down to the lower part of the gorge. 

Trying to get a look at the waterfall from the lower end of the wooden stairway, but the rusty pipe is in the way. This was also the site of the turbines building, which forms part of the oldest power plants in the region. 

An interesting walk through the Wissbach Gorge. For most of the trail here we are in Canton St.Gallen, whereas the river on the right forms the border with Canton Appenzell AR. 

At this point we are crossing the bridge back into Canton Appenzell AR, where we will now continue in that Canton. 

I love bridges. 

Now we have reached the widening of the river created by the little Schwänberg Dam. There were a lot of waterbirds here, including this (and always) magnificent Great Blue Heron. 

A look at the little lake as we head down toward the dam. 

Standing on the dam at the north end of the Schwänberg "lake". This dam, together with the turbine house at the bottom of the wooden stairway are part of the oldest power plant in the region. Not quite sure what that metal artwork is all about!

A short distance north of the dam is the Schwänbergbrücke (Schwänberg Bridge). Again, one side of the bridge is in Canton Appenzell Ausserrhoden (this side) and the other end is in Canton St.Gallen!

Just for fun, we walked across the bridge back into Canton St.Gallen. 

Intricate phrases are burned in old script in the beams on the bridge. Interesting is that the inscribed dates on each side are not the same! On one side it reads 1782, on the other side 1615. But the bridge was actually built in 1615.

Urs on the bridge over the Wissbach River. 

It's now 1 p.m. and we head up the hill toward the hamlet called Schwänberg. 

A look down at the Schwänberg Bridge crossing the Wissbach Gorge. 

Heading into the village of Schwänberg. 

More information along the Appenzell Culture Trail: The notable thing about the hamlet of Schwänberg is that is is the first documented settlement in the Appenzell region (9th Century). In particular, there are three buildings dating from the early 1600's, the most prominent is the former town hall building. 

Pretty Appenzell-Style houses. 

Others are enjoying the sunshine as are we!

The cute addition on this old house is from 1978, but it looks cool. Also, the text reads that this is a Restaurant / Bakery named Sternen, but it didn't look like it still was. 

This is the magnificent former town hall, built approximately 1630. It was fully restored in the early 1990's and now stands under Federal Monument Protection. 

These mini-farmers were riding their farm equipment up and down the road!

Cool place to live!

Hard at work!

This piano hasn't been played for a while. 

The beautiful "Altes Rathaus" in Schwänberg, built in 1630.

And now it's a race!

Continuing on our walk now, we pass the other interesting "monument" in this hamlet: The "Rutenkaminhaus", i.e. the house with the chimney made of river cane (?). From the Internet: "Schwänberg House with its distinctive log chimney (1491): The oldest building in the region, featuring a late medieval tower base, log construction, and an original log chimney. The wall paintings in the main room date from the late Renaissance."

A view down to the "Rutenkaminhaus" as we continue up the hill now toward our next goal, the fortress ruins. 

Another view of the Rutenkaminhaus from higher up. We actually didn't realize we had passed it until we got up here, and a local school-boy told us about it!

Looking behind us we can see the Wissbach Gorge below, where we had come up from. On the other side of the gorge at our level is another village called Egg (Flawil). 

Crossing a bridge over the railway line from Degersheim to Herisau. 

A look down as we now climb the hill to the forest where we are following a lesser-used trail up to the Rosenburg fortress ruins. (Town of Schachen along the railway line further back). 

We crossed a gully to get to the tower, and then discovered there were regular steps on the south side of the tower!

The Rosenburg fortress was built in about 1200 and was the seat of the Knights of Rorschach. It was then destroyed in 1405 during the Appenzell wars. Urs is looking into a very large and deep well which was part of the original complex. 

This is the correct side to enter the Rosenburg fortress ruins!

From here it's mostly downhill now to the train station in Herisau. It is now 2:30 p.m., and we are going to try to catch the 15:13 train, so it's going to be close again! 

Urs is checking the train schedule to see how fast we have to walk to catch the next best connection!

Up ahead is the city of Herisau, the goal of out hike. The train station is past the viaduct and the church building which you can see on the right. 

Close-up view of the Glatt Valley viaduct which we passed under later on the way to the train station. 

To the south we can see the summit of Mt. Säntis. 

Final stretch into the city of Herisau

The trail passes beneath the stunning Glatt Valley Viaduct (which we had seen from higher up the hill). On the other side is a stairway back up to the main road and just a short distance further on is the train station. 

View of Mount Säntis to the south as we head up the stairway. 

This is the Peter and Paul (Catholic) parish church. The train station is just around the corner to the left. We didn't have time to visit the church, so will include that for another foray into this region. 

We got to the Herisau train station about five minutes early for the 15:13 train. From here, a 2-hour trip back home. 

What our hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps. 

As our train heads back toward Degersheim, we pass by the hillside near Schachen from where we climbed up to the Rosenburg Castle Ruins. 

After passing via Degersheim where we started our hike, the train passes the hillside town of Lichtensteig on the way toward Lake Zurich (Pfäffikon). I did a hike through here fairly recently, in November 2025. 

Between Rapperswil and Pfäffikon, the trail passes over a land-bridge across the top and bottom parts of Lake Zurich, with a view to the Glarus Alps. We have walked that boardwalk once in 2014, but hope to do it again soon. 

These are all the hikes we have done in the Toggenburg and Appenzell Region. 

Location of Herisau within Switzerland.