A Tour of St.Georgenberg and an easy Walk to Walenstadt

Wednesday June 23, 2021 -- Our choice for this day was again determined by the weather forecast, as the area around Sargans and Lake Walensee in the Eastern part of Switzerland was the closest place which promised a bit of sunshine.

This stretch is one we often travel by train, and near the town of Walenstadt at the East end of Lake Walensee below the Churfirsten mountain range is a small hill with an old chapel perched upon it, a landmark that catches the eye as we pass by. It had always been our intention to hike up there and check it out.

As it turns out, this hill called St.Georgenberg is a site of historical importance, not only because the St.George Chapel is one of the only Romanesque buildings in Switzerland with a rounded apse, but because archeological digs have discovered that the Romans had built a settlement on this strategic location, a settlement which was also lived in during the middle ages. Even older than this, found items indicated human activity here as far back as 4000 BC.

We did an easy walk, up the hill to the Chapel (which unfortunately was locked), then around the hill reading the information placards about the findings here, then northwards to the train station at Walenstadt. For us a short hike (2.5 hours and just over 8 kilometers) but it was hotter than expected due to this seemingly unending humid storm weather, so OK not to spend hours and hours walking. Sometimes it is also nice just to enjoy interesting buildings, flowering gardens and villages which we've never been to before. And the Churfirsten Mountains are always worth a visit.

This is a view we enjoy a lot, a ride along Lake Walensee with lovely Churfirsten mountains along the North side of the lake. The train is heading East toward Walenstadt and Sargans

At this point, at about 11 a.m, the sky is still blue here, but the clouds are coming over the peaks from the North side. (As an aside, we found out that about an hour later, a wingsuit flyer lost his life right about here while we were headed up to the chapel on the hill).

Although this photo was taken later in the day, this is usually what we see from the train window when we travel from Walenstadt to Sargans or Chur. It intrigued us enough to decide to go up there on today's outing. 

From Walenstadt we took a bus to Berschis, a small village at the foot of the hill called St.Georgenberg. The chapel which we always see when we travel to Sargans and Chur by train is perched on that little hill. 

We discovered a small trail behind the larger community church of Berschis, and followed the trail up the hill. This trail is not marked on our maps.

From the trail up St.Georgenberg, we see the steep walls of the Churfirsten mountains. 

This lizard looks big, but it's just a common wall-lizard, which we see everywhere. 

Below the chapel is what is called a Lourdes Grotto, an outdoor religious place of worship for Catholics. From here a small steep trail heads to the top of the plateau, on the North side of the hill.

This is the trail emerging onto the plateau! There is no trail sign on this side, and if we had come up on the South side of the hill, we might not have found this trail!

Flumser Chapel and St.George Chapel. This is one of the few churches in Switzerland with a round apse. The first thing we did when we got here is look for a bench on the shady side (there was one!) where we had our picnic lunch. Unfortunately, the chapel door was locked. 

According to an information placard, this is the oldest chapel in Canton St.Gallen. It was built in stages over several centuries. The first part (the round apse) dates from the 11th or the 12th century.

This is a section of one of the information panels, which details the building stages of the St.George's Chapel. There were six items of interest to discover around this small hill, including the Lourdes Grotto, and an ancient well called Ughüür Brune.

From the St.George Plateau, we look down toward Walenstadt to the North, where we are heading afterwards. (Our view from our picnic spot on the North side of the chapel). There are already more clouds along the peaks. 

Directly to our East is a small crevasse through which you can see the summit of a mountain... below which is another plateau in the Palfries area. We have walked up there before. 

And to the South, we see down the Seez Valley toward Bad Ragaz (where we recently were when we went into the Tamina Gorge). From here we descended on the South side of the hill, learning about more Roman archeological discoveries here. 

Now we're walking back toward the Lourdes Grotto on the North side of the hill, but lower down. We've decided to cross the road below and head up to the upper barns for a better view. 

A relatively short and easy hike for us. Starting in Berschis, we walked up to the top of the hill called St.Georgenberg, then headed Northwest through Tscherlach (very nice little church there) and through some pretty vineyards, and to the train station in Walenstadt.

Heading Northwest in the direction of Walenstadt

We decided on a detour up the hill instead of directly along the paved road. That way we could see over the village of Berschis, and even got a glimpse of Lake Walensee.

Also, from higher up we could see the little chapel on St. Georgenberg.

St.Georgen Chapel from its North side (till now we have only seen it from the other side out of a train window)

After following the Berschnerbach (a small river which has its source 1200m higher up on the Palfries Plateau) we look back at the more modern church in Berschis (we had a quick look inside before finding the unmarked trail behind it, leading up to the chapel)

Some pretty flowering bushes we passed along the way!

This little chapel in the next town (Tscherlach) had a very interesting interior worth looking at. This large chapel called St.Johannes was built in 1641

Very nice painted woodwork inside the St.Johannes chapel in Tscherlach

Because the interior of the chapel is so small, the organ is in the apse. I was curious about how the organist would get up there. I think there is a 40-cm space behind the altarpiece! I was able to access the small balcony by an equally narrow wooden staircase!

It was very hot, and there were kids playing in the town fountains!

Between Tscherlach and Walenstadt we walked through several vineyards

Another look back toward Berschis (zoomed view) gives us a good look at the little hill called St.Georgenberg, with the Berschis parish church beneath it. This wasn't a very large uphill hike for us!

Passing through the vineyards

On the trail between Berschis and Walenstadt

Another good look at the steep cliffs of the Churfirsten mountains. The peaks are no longer visible. 

By the time we reached Walenstadt, the sky was getting overcast, which was OK because then it wasn't so hot. 

A quick stop at the Walenstadt parish church. The tower was the most impressive part.

A kestrel watching me from a ledge on the church tower!

Some pretty exotic plants in this garden! I've never seen such a healthy-looking banana tree in these parts!

A look back at the church before heading to the train station in Walenstadt.

Town square in Walenstadt

This painted house next to the train station is a familiar sight to us, as it is all that we had previously seen of Walenstadt, when the train stops here!

We had 20 minutes to wait for our train, so we sat on a bench in the shade at the nearby hospital. Look at the size of that tree!