Portrait
The small village of Sool sit above the rivers Linth and Sernft on the mounted-up mining waste of a prehistoric landslide. Another significant geological phenomenon is the Glarner Überschiebung (Glarus thrust fault) in the Lochsite (hole site) at the entrance of the Sernftals. It should even be declared to an UNESCO world heritage.
The municipality consists of Ober- and Untersool, as well as the hamlet of Warth in the Sernftal. Already in the middle ages a trade route led over Sool, Warth and Soolsteg into the Kleintal. A soler tagwan (citizen's community) is already mentioned in the Habsburg rent-roll (about 1300). The Näfelser Fahrtsbrief (the Fahrtsbrief describes history and sequence of events of the battle of Näfels in 1388 and mention the names of all warriors who were killed in the battle) in the year book of Linthal (originating from the 16th century) mentions Ruedi Russer and Wälti from Sool from the church parish Schwanden amongst the killed warriors. The village's name comes from the old high German word sol, which means wallow, pool, swampy place. There were still shallow ponds in Untersool in the 19th century. On the whole Sool terrace, there is neither a source nor a creek. Around 1800, there were only two village fountains available in Sool with scantily water supply.
The village belonged first to the church in Glarus and since 1349 to the church in Schwanden. Since 1528 the majority of the people are Protestants.
Together with Mitlödi and Schwändi, Sool formed a so-called Wahltagwen (citizen's voting community). Moreover, until 1769 the Sooler citizens owned together with the citizens from Schwändi and Mitlödi common woodland. Although the castle of Sola is named after the village, the castle stands on the property of Mitlödi. But stones of the castle are detectable in Sooler house walls. They were used for the reconstruction after the great fire of 1713 in the center of the village, then called Obersool. In the 1770s, there were 143 male citizens counted.
In 1848, the Sooler Tagwenbürger (citizens) decided to solve the water shortage. They took a source in the Hellbach area below the alp Fessis and directed them to the two village fountains. For the new water pipeline, they used 600Tüchel (lengthwise pierced spruce trunks), what cost the village 1506 Swiss francs. Already in 1875, the wood pipeline was replaced by cement and iron pipes.
The first school building was built in 1832. The present primary school building was inaugurated in 1902. 1845-48, there was a strong emigration movement. At about that time nearly 550 people lived in the village. in 1876, the cotton printing factory Trümpy opened its doors in Steg at Mitlödi. It is now a plastic injection plant.
1955, four sources could be taken in the Gheist area. Mid-1980s the local council approved a credit of 950'000 Swiss francs for the improvement of the water supply. At that time a new water reservoir was developed in the Weid area.
The sunny location and the good transport links make Sool an atttractive residential community. However, by the middle of the 20th century until the late of 1980s the population reduced from 429 to 259 inhabitants.
More recently, Sool has official names and house numbers. Basics for this purpose provided the original denominations, even very old ones as in the case of the Landesfussweg (State footpath) which in earlier times was called Lochgässli (hole lane). The Adler (Eagle) in the village center is the only restaurant in Sool. As long as anyone can remember, over the place Föhnen blows the Kleintalföhn (foehn is a type of dry, warm, down-slope wind; anecdotally, residents in areas of frequent foehn winds report a variety of illnesses ranging from migraines to psychosis).
The village museum Sool - nearby the restaurant Adler - shows everything the museum makers were able to find in Sool and contribute to the topics history, school, clubs, culture, fire brigade, field names, forest, alps and about the painter Adolf Fehr.
In 2011, the community structure of canton Glarus was reorganized and Sool became part of the new administrative community Glarus Süd.
Translation of the official website of Schwanden and Dorf Sool.