Feldkirch, Vorarlberg

Feldkirch is a town in the western Austrian state of Vorarlberg, on the border with Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and the administrative centre of the Feldkirch district. After Dornbirn it is the second most populous town in Vorarlberg, and the westernmost point of Austria lies within it on the Rhine, where Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein meet. A Roman settlement called Clunia, probably a weigh station on the road between Mediolanum and Brigantium, stood on the site. The medieval town was first mentioned as a city in 1218, after Count Hugo von Montfort built the Schattenburg castle, which remains its main landmark. The town has one of the best preserved medieval townscapes in Vorarlberg, built around 1200 on a geometric grid and kept within walls rebuilt about 1500, with the Gothic cathedral of St. Nikolaus and the Katzenturm tower. Feldkirch is the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese, was home to the Jesuit school Stella Matutina, and saw two clashes between French and Austrian forces in March 1799.