Arbon

Arbon is a historic town and municipality in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland, and the capital of the district of Arbon. It sits on a peninsula on the southwest shore of Lake Constance, between Romanshorn and Rorschach, on a railway line that links Konstanz and Romanshorn with Rorschach, Chur and St. Gallen. The municipality covers about 5.94 square kilometres and is divided into six neighbourhoods, with the medieval Altstadt at the centre; Stachen and Frasnacht were incorporated in 1998. Settlement here is very old: the lakeshore was inhabited from the Stone Age, stilt houses of the Stone and Bronze Ages have been excavated, and a Late Roman fortification on the peninsula developed into a medieval town in the first half of the thirteenth century. The Roman name Arbor Felix first appears around 280, Irish monks followers of Columban settled in 610, and St. Gallus, founder of the monastery of St. Gallen, died in Arbon in 627. In 1255 Bishop Eberhard von Waldburg granted market rights and built the city wall.