Mels has many strong points. Mels as a place with an exciting history shows that it is also a place with excellent prospects for the future.

With an area of 140 km2 the political municipality of Mels is the largest municipality in the St. Gallen canton and also one of the largest in Switzerland. With 7864 residents it is as well the municipality with the highest population figures in the district of Sargans.

Looking on a map you can see that the municipality of Mels has a varied and multifarious structure. The municipality reaches from the Rhine and from the Gonzen over the Seeztal, up the whole Weisstannental close to the Piz Sardona. The regional extent offers ideal conditions for a manifold development. The heart is the «village» with the only preserved example of a closed village in the Sarganserland. Besides the actual centre of the village the villages of Heiligkreuz, Ragnatsch and Plons, at the fore mountain Butz, in the Weisstannental Schwendi and Weisstannen, at the back mountain Mädris-Vermol and Tils constitute the municipality of Mels. To this day, with its own local authority, school community and parish the Weisstannental holds a special position within our political municipality of Mels.

Agriculture, Alpine dairy farming and forestry are deeply rooted in the people. Altogether 118 agricultural enterprises with an average size of about 14 hectares cultivate our agricultural acreages. On our alps around 70 tons of alp cheese as well as butter, yoghurt, «Zieger» (cheese product made of whey proteins) and whey are produced each summer. Mels is also the fourth largest wine-producing municipality in the St. Gallen canton with an acreage of about 16 hectares.
The municipality developed from an original farming village to a place with industry, commerce and trade, service and administrative companies. Especially in the service sector there are being created several hundred jobs in the area of Riet with the construction of various new shopping centres.
The people of Mels distinguish themselves in a strong solidarity and great commitment. Since several years Mels has positioned itself as «The meeting place with culture». Mels wants to cultivate consciously its traditions and get involved culturally. Mels has to offer several strengths and characteristics, for example:

• Its central traffic situation will be increasingly important.

• Nature experience, recreation, varied recreational and sports facilities in summer and winter nearby increase the quality of life.

• From Mels you can easily reach a wide range of institutions for education and further training.

• Nearby there is a variety of shopping possibilities. These do not only consist of big shopping centres. A manifold trade in Mels offers its services as well and well-established weekly markets turn shopping in the village into an exciting experience.

• Whether «Alpabfahrt» (tradition to bring down the cattle from the alp) and cattle show or, for example, carnival - Mels has many lived traditions. In the old cinema culturally distinguished events take place all the time.

• In Mels an exceptionally varied and involved club life has developed.

• From «Älplerzmorge» (traditional breakfast in the Alps) over good plain cooking up to gourmet set meals - in the award-winning «Schlüssel» a great culinary variety is open to everybody.

For more informations: http://www.mels.ch