Hinwil

Hinwil is a municipality of about 11,400 inhabitants in the district of Hinwil in the canton of Zürich, Switzerland. The village from which it takes its name is first mentioned in 745 as Hunichinwilari, in a donation by Beata and Landolt to the Abbey of Saint Gall. It was part of an Alamannic colony that included adjoining villages donated to the same abbey over the following century, such as Hadlikon in 775, Bossikon in 829, Ringwil in 837 together with a church, and Wernetshausen in 867. The Alamanni were preceded by Roman inhabitants, as the foundation walls of a Roman villa of the 1st century CE under the medieval church show; the church is first mentioned in the second half of the 8th century. In the High Middle Ages the village was part of the Landvogtei of Grüningen and after 1280 was subordinated to the commandry of the Knights of St. John at Bubikon, and at the Reformation the governance of Hinwil and other villages of the region was divided between Zürich and the Order.