Arbon is a historic town and a municipality and district capital of the district of Arbon in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.
Arbon is located on the southern shore of Lake Constance, on a railway line between Konstanz/Romanshorn and Rorschach/Chur, or St. Gallen, respectively.
It is the site of prehistoric settlements reaching back 6500 years. Elements of the castle on the peninsula were part of a Late Roman defensive fortification that developed into a medieval town in the first half of the thirteenth century.
Geography Arbon is situated on a peninsula on the southwest shore of Lake Constance between Romanshorn and Rorschach. On the south, the municipality borders the canton of St. Gallen. St. Gallen is the nearest larger city.
The surrounding hills are remaining moraines of the Rhine glacier that existed in prehistoric times.
The surrounding municipalities are (counter-clockwise from the north): Egnach, Roggwil, Berg, Steinach, and Horn. Lake Constance forms the municipality boundary on the northeast and east.
Arbon has an area, , of . Of this area, or 37.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 5.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 55.7% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.7% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.5% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics 2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 27.8% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 9.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.5%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 5.4% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 11.1%. Out of the forested land, 2.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 29.3% is used for growing crops, while 8.2% is used for orchards or vine crops.
Although Arbon has an area of only 5.9 km2, it is divided into six neighborhoods. The Altstadt is in the center and has the typical medieval buildings and narrow streets. Efforts have been made in recent years to reduce automobile traffic in the center. Bergli is named after the hill on which it lies. The southern part of Arbon started as a working-class neighborhood during industrialization. It includes the neighborhoods of Neustadt, Bleiche, and Stacherholz. This industrial area has a limit placed on new development.
Stachen and Frasnacht are independent parts of the municipality that were incorporated in 1998. Stachen and Arbon have grown together, but there is still a rural stretch between Frasnacht and the other two.
Climate
Lake Constance assures that the climate in Arbon is mild, both summer and winter.
The warm winds from the west bring heavy rainfall as they meet the dry, cold, continental winds from the northeast. The warm Föhn that comes over the Alps from the south is felt as far as Arbon.
In the summer, warm electrical storms are common. Arbon has a storm warning system for boats on Lake Constance and works closely with neighboring towns.
Average January temperatures lie between . Average July temperatures range from . Average annual precipitation is between 80 and 100 cm.
The prevailing winds make Lake Constance a favorite for sailing and wind surfing.
In the winter, ponds and the lake slowly freeze. In 1963, Lake Constance froze over, something that only happens about every 100 years.
History The shores of Lake Constance near Arbon have been inhabited since the Stone Age. Archaeological digs in 1885 and 1944 have uncovered stilt houses from the Stone and Bronze Ages. At first, it was assumed that these were built over water, since they were raised on stilts. However, it is now known that they were on the shore and were built in this fashion because the ground was swampy.
During Roman times, Bergli was probably a Roman fort. The raised situation and view over the lake were strategically important. Since 1957, regular excavations have shown the remains of late Roman fortifications. The Latin name of Arbon, Arbor Felix (meaning happy tree), first appears in around 280 and is mentioned in the Itinerarium Antonini in 300.
According to the chronicles of Ammianus Marcellinus, the emperor Gratian passed by Arbon in 378 as he hurried to join his uncle Valens, who was marching to confront the Goths at Battle of Adrianople.Ammianus, The History, Book 31, 10:20
In the 8th century, the area became part of the territory of the Franks.
In 610, Irish monks who were followers of Columban of Luxeuil settled in Arbon. They found a small Christian settlement called Castrum there. One of these monks was St. Gallus, the founder of the monastery of St. Gallen. He died in 627 in Arbon. In 720, a fortification on the site of the present castle was built by a Frankish troop. The foundations of this early fortress remain. The first written mention of Arbon is in "Itinerarium Antonini" of 771 where it is mentioned as in pago Arbonense.
Arbon, along with most of the southern shore of Lake Constance belonged to Prince-Bishopric of Constance. In 1255, Bishop Eberhard von Waldburg gave Arbon a dispensation for market rights in the area and built the city wall. That century saw an influx of inhabitants from the surrounding farms. From 1262 to 1264, and again in 1266, the young duke of Swabia, Conradin of Hohenstaufen, resided in Arbon because the Bishop of Constance was his guardian. The surrounding towns of Steinach, Mörschwil, Horn, Goldach, Egnach, Roggwil, and Steinebrunn all belonged to the parish of Arbon.
The 14th century saw further growth. Linen production and other crafts developed. Between 1322 and 1334, Bishop Rudolf von Montfort rebuilt the crumbling fortress. A fire of unknown cause in 1390 destroyed much of the Altstadt. A second fire in 1494 was set by the sons of a hanged thief.
When Thurgau was conquered by the Swiss Eidgenossen in 1460, the Bishops of Constance retained Arbon. However, in the Swabian War of 1499, they lost civil rights over the territory, retaining only ecclesiastical supremacy. Arbon then became part of the Old Swiss Confederacy.
The castle of Arbon in its present form was built in 1515 by Bishop Hugo von Hohenlandenberg. The tower is older and dates to 993.
In 1525, the first stirrings of the Reformation reached Arbon. In 1537, the reformed congregation was forced to return the church of St. Martin to the Catholic Church and meet in the chapel in Erdhausen, although only a small minority of the population remained Catholic. Religious conflict continued until the 18th century. In 1712, Thurgau declared equality for the various faiths.
In the 18th century, the linen and embroidery industry was established in Arbon. The industrialists built attractive villas in the area, such as the «Rotes Haus» built in 1750.
In 1798, Thurgau was occupied by French troops, along with much of the rest of Switzerland. The adoption of the Swiss constitution ended Arbon's dependence on the Bishops of Constance. The Bishop's representative, Franz Xaver Wirz von Rudenz, was forced to leave the city. In 1803, Arbon became part of the new canton of Thurgau. From 1803 to 1815, Arbon and Horn (an exclave in the canton of St. Gallen) were united in one municipality.
In the 19th century, Arbon developed into an economic and manufacturing center. This occurred primarily because of the pioneering efforts of industrialist Franz Saurer, who moved his foundry from St. Gallen to Arbon in 1863. Starting in 1888, his factory built all kinds of machinery and motors. Until 1983, the Adolph Saurer AG factory produced trucks and buses, and until 1986 military vehicles. Today, the factory produces only textile machinery. At its high point, the factory employed 5000 workers. The population grew from 660 in 1844 to over 10,000 at the turn of the century.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, Arbon has had a large non-Swiss minority. Tensions between ethnic groups led to riots with several fatalities in 1902.
In 1911, Arbon was the site of the International Socialist Congress. From the 1920s to the 1950s, the Social Democratic majority held power in the city, and it was known as red Arbon.
Population Between 1860 and 1910, the population grew extensively because of industrialization. Arbon became the biggest city in the canton of Thurgau. During World War II, the population shrank due to the proximity of Germany (just across Lake Constance) and flight from the frontiers. However, after the war, the population returned.
Today, because of the addition of Frasnacht, Stachen, Kratzern, Speiserlehn, and Fetzisloh, the population is . , 28.9% of the population are foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008 accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 0.7%. , most of the population speaks German (84.5%), with Italian being second most common (4.0%) and Serbo-Croatian being third (2.9%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 07-September-2010 Arbon is now the third-largest city in the canton, after Frauenfeld and Kreuzlingen.
The historical population is given in the following table: year population (Municipality) population (Bürgergemeinde) 1824 645 1850 927 1870 1,919 1,396 1888 3,073 2,500 1910 10,299 9,598 1941 8,570 7,897 1970 13,122 12,227 1990 12,415 11,043
Religion Like many places in the canton of Thurgau, Arbon is divided between Lutheran/Reformed and Catholic. St. Martin is Catholic, as is the nearby Gallus Chapel. Bergli has a Lutheran church, and Freikirchen a Methodist one. Recently, there has been an influx of Moslems from the Balkans, particularly from Kosovo.
From the , 5,090 or 39.4% were Roman Catholic, while 4,176 or 32.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 8 Old Catholics (or about 0.06% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland there are 371 individuals (or about 2.87% of the population) who belong to the Orthodox Church, and there are 449 individuals (or about 3.48% of the population) who belong to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish, and 1,167 (or about 9.04% of the population) who are Islamic. There are 104 individuals (or about 0.81% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), 941 (or about 7.29% of the population) belong to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 599 individuals (or about 4.64% of the population) did not answer the question.Statistical Office of Thurgau , MS Excel document – Wohnbevölkerung Gemeinden nach religiöser Zugehörigkeit, Jahr 2000 accessed 23 June 2010
Demographics , the gender distribution of the population was 49.6% male and 50.4% female. The population was made up of 4,572 Swiss men (34.1% of the population), and 2,091 (15.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 4,977 Swiss women (37.1%), and 1,787 (13.3%) non-Swiss women.
In there were 74 live births to Swiss citizens and 33 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 131 deaths of Swiss citizens and 10 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 57 while the foreign population increased by 23. There was 1 Swiss man, 2 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland to another country, 128 non-Swiss men who emigrated from Switzerland to another country and 95 non-Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland to another country. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources) was an increase of 16 and the non-Swiss population change was an increase of 170 people. This represents a population growth rate of 1.4%.