Glarus

Saint Fridolin of Säckingen (died c. 538–540) was an Irish missionary who founded Säckingen Abbey. According to the 13th-century Ursus legend, Fridolin converted a landowner named Ursus, who bequeathed lands in the Linth valley. When Ursus's brother Landolf challenged the gift in court, Fridolin summoned Ursus from the dead to confirm the donation. Since 1395, the canton has displayed Saint Fridolin on its coat of arms, often accompanied by the skeleton of Ursus.

On the night of May 10–11, 1861, a catastrophic fire driven by violent Föhn winds destroyed approximately 600 buildings in Glarus, leaving 2,300 people homeless. Church bells melted in the narrowest part of the main street, the Meerenge. Architects Bernhard Simon and Johann Caspar Wolff designed a modern town with a checkerboard grid layout and wide streets. The disaster also led directly to the founding of Swiss Re in 1863.

The Landsgemeinde is the canton's annual open-air assembly, documented since March 11, 1387. It takes place on the first Sunday in May at the Zaunplatz. Citizens vote by raising orange cards; the Landammann carries the cantonal sword as a symbol of authority. In 2007, Glarus became the first Swiss canton to lower the voting age to 16, decided by show of hands in pouring rain. The Landsgemeinde exists today only in Glarus and Appenzell Innerrhoden.

Vrenelisgärtli ("Little Verena's Little Garden") is the 2,904 m summit of the Glärnisch massif. According to legend, a spirited young woman named Vreneli climbed the peak to plant a garden, but was buried by snow beneath a copper kettle she wore for protection. A small square snowfield on the summit is said to be her garden. In the hot summer of 2003, the snowfield completely melted for the first time in recorded history — a symbol of climate change in the Alps.

On April 9, 1388, roughly 400 men from Glarus faced a Habsburg army of approximately 6,500 at Näfels. The Glarner emerged from snow and fog to counterattack while the Austrians were looting. When the Habsburgs fled, a bridge over the Maag collapsed, drowning hundreds. Casualties: 54 Swiss versus 1,700 Austrians. The Näfelser Fahrt, held on the first Thursday in April, is Switzerland's oldest state celebration still observed, with a procession past eleven memorial stones.

Schabziger (Sap Sago) is a hard, cone-shaped green cheese produced exclusively in Glarus, with origins possibly as far back as the 9th century. Its distinctive color comes from blue fenugreek, believed to have arrived in Europe during the Crusades. On April 24, 1463, the Landsgemeinde approved a decree establishing quality controls and a stamp of origin — making Schabziger Switzerland's oldest protected brand and one of the earliest examples of product protection in the world.

In the late 18th century, deforestation caused the Linth plain to become malarial swampland. Hans Conrad Escher (1767–1823) engineered two channels: the Escherkanal (1811) diverted the Linth into Walensee, and the Linthkanal (1816) connected Walensee to Lake Zurich. The project reclaimed 20 km² of arable land. After Escher's death, the state appended "von der Linth" to his family name — his grandson was Alfred Escher, founder of Credit Suisse.

On May 22, 1864, the Landsgemeinde adopted the Fabrikgesetz — the first factory law on continental Europe. It limited daily working hours to 12, abolished night work, and banned factory work for children under 13. At its peak, Glarus had 22 printing plants employing 6,250 workers who printed approximately 48 million meters of fabric per year. The Glarner law served as the model for the Swiss Federal Factory Law of 1877.