Glarus Nord

Glarus Nord is one of the three municipalities of the canton of Glarus, Switzerland, the others being Glarus and Glarus Süd, and has about 18,800 inhabitants. Effective from 1 January 2011 it incorporates the former municipalities of Bilten, Filzbach, Mollis, Mühlehorn, Näfels, Niederurnen, Oberurnen and Obstalden. Bilten, for example, is first mentioned in 1050 as Billitun and was probably inhabited in the Roman era; by the mid-11th century Schänis Abbey owned a large part of the village, which the Pope confirmed in 1178. St. Catherine's Chapel there is first mentioned in 1345, the village joined the County of Glarus in 1405 to 1406 or 1415, its residents no longer paid rents to the abbey after 1412 although it stayed partly under the abbey's control until 1612, and in 1528 the majority embraced the Protestant Reformation. A village church was consecrated in 1607, and in 1608 a local family built the Renaissance Elsener House as a sign of the village's growing wealth.