Gonzen

The Gonzen the Castle Sargans

The Gonzen is a mountain summit in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland to 1,830 m above sea level. M. It stands as southeastern end of the Alviergruppe like a wedge between each at the same height lying Seez and Rhine Valley and is thus an exposed vantage summit. To the north of the Gonzen runs in the plateau, which lies on the west side before the summit chain from Gauschla to Gamsstock, and it is sold only at 160 meters altitude, which provides easy accessibility means.

Gonzen mines

History

In Switzerland, there are no large deposits of iron ore, which the majority of mines had only a short time in operation. In contrast, it was dismantled at the Gonzen at least since its first documentary mention as mine 1396 ore. Until the closure of the iron mine in 1966 approximately 2.7 million tons of ore have been promoted. In the mountain currently are studs and tracks with a total length of 90 km, and the mine sites ranged from 350 m up to 1,400 m above sea. M. up.

Originally, the ore was mined from above, ie you had to go up to the mountain and then back down the mountain first. The ore was then brought to the valley by sledge on steep paths in the ironworks. 1920, the 1800 m long cable car from Naus ( mining village at 1000 m ) was taken into the valley station Malerva in operation. The ore was shipped in gondolas, and sent into the valley station Malerva in Sargans. There it was sorted, washed and then loaded onto trains. End of 1951, it was assumed the base tunnel to 492 m above sea level. M. in operation, thus the ore mining via Naus was unnecessary. In the same year they put the cable car silently, today is only the valley station Malerva.

When they finished the mining of iron ore in 1966, also sets were sold. Among the water pumps that prevented the lower gears were flooded. Today, the bottom soles are no longer accessible. Attempts by divers to explore the flooded routes failed, because after a short time the water was very cloudy. The iron mine, founded in 1919 Gonzen AG which, each containing 49 percent of the corporations Georg Fischer and Sulzer heard, still possesses the mining license.

Modern Times

Since 1983, the club pro Gonzen mine tours organized by a part of the mine and runs a restaurant and a museum in the mountain.

1954 built the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon a Gyrolokomotive for Lorraine iron ore mine ( Mines de St- Pierre Mont ). The locomotive is not proven there and came into Gonzen mine then, today (April 2009) draws these visitors occasionally trains to the mine.

On 11 October 2007, the Swiss company " Espros Photonics " announced that it will build a semiconductor factory inside the Gonzen. The reason is here argued that the harmful vibrations for the electronic components inside the mountain, the Gonzen are relatively small and daylight in the manufacturing process is undesirable. Construction of the plant began in July 2008.