Discover Glarus
The smallest capital of Switzerland
Markets worth seeing and summer festivals
The small town of Glaris (Glarus in German) is a municipality in the German-speaking canton of Glaris, one of the least populated in Switzerland. It is located in the municipality of Glaris Center (born from the merger of the former municipalities of Ennenda, Glaris, Netstal and Riedern). The municipality being the smallest form of local government, Glaris is therefore, with its 6000 inhabitants, the smallest capital of the Helvetic Confederation. The city, located in a deep Alpine valley surrounded by beautiful mountains such as Wiggis and Vorder Glärnisch, is not the sunniest in Switzerland. Both urban and rural, Glaris has everything to appeal to newcomers and tourists. Companies like Chocolatier Läderach, Sauter Bachmann, A. & J. Stöckli AG, Stöckli Metall AG, Möbelfabrik Horgenglarus are based here, the Zurich metropolis being only 70 km away via the A3 motorway. To see: the museum, housed in the Freuler Palace and dedicated to the Glarus textile industry (the Glarus scarf in particular); the Place de la Landsgemeinde; the chapel of the Château Saint-Michel; the parish church common to Catholic and Protestant worship; the amazing Anna Göldi Museum.
Real estate: living in Glarus
Life in Glarus is both peaceful and lively. We settle there to work most of the time, but also because we want to enjoy the nature that surrounds it. Beautiful mountains, lakes like the Klöntalersee whose craggy scenery recalls a Norwegian fjord. Summer is the time for festivals, especially for cultures or the GLKB Sound of Glaris which ends the summer. All Swiss cities have their market and those of Glaris are worth a closer look. There is the weekly market which offers fresh local and regional products (including Schabziger, a cheese from the canton) and products from around the world. There is the very popular flea market which over time has become the largest in the region and finally, more of a fair than a market, the cattle fair which takes place in October and allows you to admire the cattle breeds of the canton. For the record: in 1845 a few dozen inhabitants of Glaris left their villages to try their luck in the United States. There they founded New Glaris in the state of Wisconsin. Little American Switzerland has since become a very touristic place. Glaris is more a village than a city. The real estate offer is mainly made up of single-family houses or apartments in small apartment buildings. The price of real estate is one of the lowest in Switzerland.
