Buchs, St. Gallen

Buchs is a municipality of about 13,000 inhabitants in the Werdenberg constituency of the canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and an important economic and transport hub on the border with Liechtenstein. It officially became a town in 2002. It is first mentioned in 765 as de Pogio in the testament of the Chur bishop Tello, and in 1213 as Buchs, when it was held by the Counts of Werdenberg; from 1404 the Werdenberg estates belonged to the Counts of Montfort, followed in 1483 by Count John Peter of Sax-Misox. In 1517 the area was acquired by the citizens of Glarus, who introduced the Protestant Reformation, and after belonging to the Canton of Linth of the Helvetic Republic from 1798 to 1803 it passed to the new canton of St. Gallen. It is a shopping, industry and services centre for the upper St. Gallen Rhine valley and the capital of its constituency, covering about 16 square kilometres and including the hamlets of Räfis and Burgerau.