Rorschach, town (1990 pop. 9,535), St. Gall canton, NE Switzerland, on Lake Constance. A prosperous commercial town in the Middle Ages, Rorschach is a resort and the largest Swiss port on the lake.

Rorschach is a municipality in the Wahlkreis (constituency) of Rorschach in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

It is south of the Lake Constance (German: Bodensee)

As of 2003, it had a population of 9000 (approx.) and a surface of 1.78 km².

The place was first mentioned in 850 as Rorscahun. In 947, Otto I granted the abbot of St. Gall the right for markets, coinage and tariffs at Rorschach.

Sights include the Kornhaus, lake promenade, aviation museum in Altenrhein, the abbey Mariaberg, as well as the St. Anna, Wartensee, Sulzberg and Wartegg castles.

The city is governed by a city council, headed by mayor Thomas Müller (CVP, elected 2003), and a parliament.

Transport

The train lines link the city to St. Gallen, St. Margrethen, Romanshorn. A rack railway, the Rorschach-Heiden-Bahn, leads to Heiden (800 m a.s.l.). In 1856, the station became the terminus of the line Zurich-St. Gallen. In Former times, train wagons even had been transported over the Lake Constance thus it was possible to reach Heiden from Frankfurt and also Berlin without changing the seat.

Gallery

External links

• City
• Tourism information