Wittenbach

Wittenbach is a municipality of about 9,700 inhabitants in the St. Gallen constituency of the canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland, first mentioned in 1297 as Witebach. The municipality consists of the village sections of Wittenbach, Kronbühl and Bruggwaldpark, together with scattered settlements and the exclave of Hinterberg, and it is flanked by two ravines, the Galgentobel formed by the Steinach creek to the east and the valley of the Sitter river to the west. It covers about 12.3 square kilometres, of which 58 percent is used for agricultural purposes, 20.9 percent is forested and 19.5 percent is settled. Its coat of arms shows three silver willows growing from a wavy blue base. The population grew by 6.5 percent in the ten years to 2020, about 21 percent were foreign nationals in 2007, and 87.8 percent of residents spoke German in 2000.