Rorschach () is a municipality, in the District of Rorschach in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. It is on the south side of Lake Constance (Bodensee).
History
Rorschach is first mentioned in 850 as Rorscachun. In 947, Otto I granted the abbot of St. Gall the right to operate markets, mint coins and levy tariffs at Rorschach.
In 1489-90 the Rorschacher Klosterbruch or destruction of the abbey at Rorschach touched off the St. Gallen War. Following decades of conflict with the city of St. Gallen, in late 1480 Abbot Ulrich Rösch began planning to move the abbey away from the city of St. Gallen to Rorschach. By moving he hoped to escape the independence and conflict in the city. Additionally, by moving closer to the important lake trade routes, he could make Rorschach into a major harbor and collect a fortune in taxes. In turn Mayor Varnbüler and the city feared that a new harbor on the lake would cause trade to bypass St. Gallen and Appenzell. They would then be forced to go through the Prince-Bishop's harbor to sell their fabric. Though the city of St. Gallen and Appenzell opposed the new monastery, after the approval of Pope Sixtus IV and protracted negotiations with Emperor Friedrich III the corner stone of the new Mariaberg Abbey was laid on 21 March 1487.
At first the city simply protested the Abbot's plan, but when that went nowhere, they began planning an attack on the abbey. They believed that the Swiss Confederation would not intervene due to tensions between them and the Swabian League. On 28 July 1489 a group of 1200 Appenzellers and 350 St. Galleners assembled at Grub (now part of Eggersriet) and marched on the Abbey. They quickly tore down the walls and burned everything they could find. After spending the night drinking and feasting on the abbot's supplies, they returned to their homes. The attack cost the Abbot the 13,000 gulden he had already spent on construction along with an additional 3,000 in furniture and supplies. The Abbey's vassals were supportive of the actions of the city and Appenzell and on 21 October 1489 signed the Waldkircher Bund with the rebels.
The Abbot spent the following months seeking support from his allies in the Old Swiss Confederation to punish St. Gallen and Appenzell. Initially he had little success. While the four allied cantons (Zürich, Lucerne, Schwyz and Glarus) generally supported the Abbot, the remainder of the Confederacy did not. However, the creation of the Waldkircher Bund appeared threatening to the Confederation and moved it to support the Abbot. On 24 January 1490, the Confederacy allowed the four cantons to attack the city and Appenzell. Facing forces from the Confederation, the Waldkircher Bund dissolved as each group prepared to defend themselves. The Swiss army besieged St. Gallen on 11 or 12 February and on 15 February the city surrendered. The peace treaty dissolved the Bund, restored the abbot's lands, allowed him to rebuild Mariaburg Abbey but required him to remain in St. Gallen. Mariaberg Monastery was rebuilt starting in 1497 and completed 1518. But it only served the monastery of St. Gallen as an administrative center and later became a school.
Geography
Rorschach has an area, , of . Of this area, 7.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 1.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 90.4% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.6%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes).
The municipality is the capital of the Rorschach Wahlkreis. It is located on Lake Constance and bordered by the municipalities of Rorschacherberg and Goldach.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a Garb Or between two Perches urinant.
Demographics
Rorschach has a population (as of ) of . , about 43.7% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Of the foreign population, (), 156 are from Germany, 747 are from Italy, 1,353 are from ex-Yugoslavia, 103 are from Austria, 329 are from Turkey, and 740 are from another country. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -5%. Most of the population () speaks German (76.0%), with Italian being second most common ( 5.3%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 4.4%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 6,572 speak German, 38 people speak French, 462 people speak Italian, and 13 people speak Romansh.