Meilen

Meilen is a municipality in the district of Meilen in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, on the right shore of Lake Zurich. Archaeological finds date settlement back more than 4,000 years: when the lake was unusually low in January 1854, objects of the Pfyn, Horgen and early Bronze Age cultures were uncovered, and Roman coins and a Roman road to Chur also passed here. The place is first mentioned between 820 and 880 as Meilana, parts of it belonged to monasteries including St. Gallen, Einsiedeln and the Grossmünster of Zurich, and in 1384 it became a bailiwick of Zurich. Wine making goes back centuries, and the coat of arms shows two towers of the local Friedberg castle, built around 1200.