Rorschach, Switzerland

Rorschach is a town and municipality in the district of Rorschach in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland, on the south side of Lake Constance. It is the capital of the Rorschach Wahlkreis and borders the municipalities of Rorschacherberg and Goldach. It is first mentioned in 850 as Rorscachun, and in 947 Otto I granted the abbot of St. Gall the right to operate markets, mint coins and levy tariffs there. In 1489 and 1490 the destruction of the abbey being built at Rorschach, known as the Rorschacher Klosterbruch, touched off the St. Gallen War; the abbey, Mariaberg, was later rebuilt and finished in 1518. The municipality is very small, covering about 1.8 square kilometres as of 2006, of which more than ninety percent is built up, and it had 9,646 residents at the end of 2020.