Pfäfers

Pfäfers is a municipality in the Wahlkreis (constituency) of Sarganserland in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The villages Pfäfers, St. Margrethenberg, Vadura, Valens, Vasön and Vättis belong to the municipality.

History

The Taminatal can look back on a long history of settlement. In the Drachenloch above Vättis stonetools of cavemen and bones of bears, perhaps 50,000 years old, were found. Examples from the find are on display in the local museum in Vättis.

Pfäfers reached importance through the foundation of the Benedictine monastery, Pfäfers Abbey, in the first half of the 8th century. It existed for over a thousand years and was closed in 1838. Since 1847 the abbey premises have been used as a mental institution.

Pfäfers is first mentioned in 762 as abbas de Fabarias. In 1247 it was mentioned as Pheuers and in 1288 as Pfaevaers. In Romansh it is known as Faveras.

In the 14th century Walser settled in the Calfeisental. Until today the colony of St. Martin and the Walserhouse on the alp Ebni can be visited.

Valens

Valens (328 – 9 August 378), fully Flavius Julius Valens Augustus (Latin: FLAVIVS IVLIVS VALENS AVGVSTVS), was Eastern Roman Emperor from 364 to 378. He was given the eastern half of the empire by his brother Valentinian I after the latter's accession to the throne. Valens, sometimes known as the Last True Roman, was defeated and killed in the Battle of Adrianople, which marked the beginning of the collapse of the decaying Western Roman Empire.

Life

Appointment as emperor

Valens and his brother Valentinian were both born in Cibalae (in present-day Croatia) into an Illyrian family in 328 and 321 respectively. They had grown up on estates purchased by their father Gratian the Elder in Africa and Britain. While Valentinian had enjoyed a successful military career prior to his appointment as emperor, Valens apparently had not. He had spent much of his youth on the family's estate and only joined the army in the 360s, participating with his brother in the Persian campaign of Emperor Julian.

Valens (disambiguation)

Valens was a Roman Emperor (364–378).

Valens may also refer to:

People with the name

Fabius Valens

Fabius Valens of Anagnia (d. 69) was a Roman commander favoured by Nero. In 69 he was commander of Legio I Germanica based in Germania Inferior. When the troops refused to endorse the new emperor Galba after Nero's death, he had them proclaim Vitellius, the governor of Germania Inferior, as emperor.

The forces supporting Vitellius were divided into two armies for the march on Rome, one of them commanded by Valens. Valens' troops took a route through Gaul, probably to recruit additional soldiers, before eventually joining with the other Vitellian army, led by Caecina, at Cremona. By then Galba had been killed and Otho had been proclaimed emperor at Rome. Otho's forces met the combined Vitellian armies at the first Battle of Bedriacum. Valens and Caecina won a decisive victory, and Otho committed suicide when he heard the news of his army's defeat. Vitellius was able to make a triumphant entry into Rome.

However, the armies in the east had proclaimed Vespasian as emperor, and two armies supporting Vespasian marched on Rome. The first to reach Italy was composed of five legions from Pannonia and Moesia, commanded by Antonius Primus. Valens was ill at the time, so that the force that Vitellius despatched from Rome to counter this threat was commanded by Caecina. Caecina tried to betray Vitellius and proclaim Vespasian as emperor, but his army refused to follow his lead, and put him in chains. By this time Valens had recovered from his illness and was on his way to join the army, but before he could arrive, the second Battle of Bedriacum had been fought and the Vitellian forces defeated by Antonius.

Switzerland

Switzerland (/ˈswɪtsərlənd/), officially the Swiss Confederation (Latin: Confoederatio Helvetica, hence its abbreviation CH), is a country in Europe. While still named the "Swiss Confederation" for historical reasons, modern Switzerland is a federal directorial republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities, called Bundesstadt ("federal city"). The country is situated in Western and Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km² (15,940 sq mi). While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of approximately 8 million people is concentrated mostly on the Plateau, where the largest cities are to be found: among them are the two global and economic centres, Zürich and Geneva.

The establishment of the Swiss Confederation is traditionally dated to 1 August 1291, which is celebrated annually as the Swiss National Day. The country has a long history of armed neutrality—it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815—and did not join the United Nations until 2002. Nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to numerous international organizations, including the second largest UN office. On the European level, it is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association, but notably it is not part of the European Union, nor the European Economic Area. However the country does participate in the Schengen Area and the EU's single market through a number of bilateral treaties.

Switzerland (software)

Switzerland is an open source network-monitoring utility developed and released by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Its goal is to monitor network traffic between two systems running the program to see if the user's internet service provider is violating network neutrality, like Comcast does with the BitTorrent protocol.

Switzerland was featured in the Technology section of an issue of New Scientist in August 2008.

See also

References

External links

Switzerland (disambiguation)

Switzerland is a country in Europe.

Switzerland may also refer to: