Romanshorn is a municipality in the district of Arbon in the canton of Thurgau, Switzerland, located on the southern shore of Lake Constance ().

History

Romanshorn was probably settled in the 7th century, and is first mentioned in 779 as Rumanishorn in a land grant from Waldrata to the Abbey of St. Gall.

Geography

Romanshorn has an area, , of . Of this area, or 41.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 24.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 33.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.5% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 17.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 4.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.0%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 3.2% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 7.3%. Out of the forested land, 21.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 32.6% is used for growing crops, while 8.7% is used for orchards or vine crops. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 0.8%. Most of the population () speaks German (83.7%), with Albanian being second most common ( 3.3%) and Italian being third ( 2.9%).

, the gender distribution of the population was 48.6% male and 51.4% female. The population was made up of 3,231 Swiss men (34.0% of the population), and 1,383 (14.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 3,669 Swiss women (38.7%), and 1,207 (12.7%) non-Swiss women.

, there were 3,858 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 2,232 (or 24.6%) persons who were part of a couple without children, and 4,585 (or 50.5%) who were part of a couple with children. There were 473 (or 5.2%) people who lived in single parent home, while there are 44 persons who were adult children living with one or both parents, 46 persons who lived in a household made up of relatives, 55 who lived in a household made up of unrelated persons, and 277 who are either institutionalized or live in another type of collective housing.

The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.63%. , the construction rate of new housing units was 12.3 new units per 1000 residents.

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 35.31% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (16.03%), the CVP (14.78%) and the FDP (13.58%). In the federal election, a total of 2,450 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 42.9%.

The historical population is given in the following table:

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! year

! population

|-

| 1831

| 1,218

|-

| 1850

| 1,408

|-

| 1900

| 4,577

|-

| 1950

| 6,648

|-

| 1980

| 7,893

|-

| 2000

| 9,076

|-

|}

Heritage sites of national significance

thumb|Ferry landing at the Romanshorn Harbor

The Old Paritätische Church, Harbor, Catholic Church of St Johannes der Täufer are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire village of Romanshorn is listed in the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

Economy

, Romanshorn had an unemployment rate of 3.13%. , there were 81 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 29 businesses involved in this sector. 2,137 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 90 businesses in this sector. 3,085 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 345 businesses in this sector. Of the working population, 12% used public transportation to get to work, and 40.4% used a private car.

Education

In Romanshorn about 61.9% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule).

Festivals

Since 1999 the annual Festival of Nations has taken place every June.

Moc Moc

In 2004 there was erected a statue of Moc moc by Swiss artist group Com&Com (de).

Notable people

  • Johann Georg Birnstiel (1858 – 1927), Swiss minister and writer, died in Romanshorn
  • Émile Taddéoli (1879 – 1920 in Romanshorn), a Swiss aviation pioneer, instructor and test pilot
  • Maria Stader (1911-1999), a Hungarian-born Swiss lyric soprano, known particularly for her Mozart interpretations; brought up in Romanshorn
  • Christoph Sutter (born 1962), teacher, poet, presenter, musical and theater author

; Sport

  • Peter Lüscher (born 1956 in Romanshorn), a former World Cup alpine ski racer
  • Daniel Lopar (born 1985), a Swiss football goalkeeper

References

  • Town of Romanshorn