Early history , Endingertor and southern town walls, as seen from Lake Zurich, Capuchin monastery to the left, the vineyards and Lindenhof'' hill in the background and its medieval central municipality Rapperswil on
Murerplan (1566)
paddle steamships Stadt Rapperswil (to the left) and
Stadt Zürich at Rapperswil harbour (1914) ,
Seedamm to the left,
Heilig Hüsli and Rapperswil in the background portal and
Liebfrauenkapelle to the left as seen from Lake Zurich
S15 line at
Rapperswil railway station,
Schloss Rapperswil and
St. John's Church in the background '' concert (
Eis-zwei-Geissebei) Settlements in the region of Rapperswil date back to at least 5000 years ago. Archaeological relicts have been found at the
Technikum island settlement, and the remains of a first
wooden bridge (1523 BC, reconstructed in 2001) to
Hurden located on the
Obersee lakeshore nearby the Technical University (HSR) respectively the so-called
Heilig Hüsli at the northwestern part of the
Seedamm area. The three neighbouring
Prehistoric settlements, as well as the early lake crossings, are part of the
UNESCO World Heritage Site Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps. In
Kempraten, two kilometers away, there was a probably
Helvetic settlement; and in the beginning of the 1st century AD, the
Roman vicus
Centum Prata (meaning
100 meadows) became an important trade center on the way to the Roman heartland. The
Neolithic bridge between
Hurden and Rapperswil was renewed by the Romans at least around 165 AD. Historians mention a 10th-century ferry station assumably at the so-called
Einsiedlerhaus in Rapperswil – in 981 AD as well as the vineyard on the
Lindenhof hill – between
Kempraten on
Kempratnerbucht,
Lützelau and
Ufenau island and assumably present
Hurden, which allowed the pilgrims towards Einsiedeln to cross the lake before the prehistoric bridge at the
Seedamm isthmus was
re-built in 1358.
Counts of Rapperswil Rapperswil Castle and the fortifications of the former locus
Endingen (given by the
Einsiedeln Abbey) were built by the
Counts of Rapperswil, i.e. by
Rudolf II and his son
Rudolf III von Rapperswil around 1200: The town was founded when the nobility of Rapperswil moved from
Altendorf across the lake to Rapperswil. On the peninsula at
Oberbollingen, the St. Nicholas Chapel is mentioned, where around 1229 a small Cistercian (later Premonstratensian) monastery was established by the house of Rapperswil; in 1267 it was united with the nearby Mariazell-Wurmsbach Abbey.
St. Martin Busskirch is one of the oldest churches around
upper Lake Zürich. Even the citizens of Rapperswil had to attend services in
Busskirch until Count Rudolf II built the
Stadtpfarrkirche on
Herrenberg next to Rapperswil Castle on
Lindenhof hill. Known members of the family are Countess
Elisabeth von Rapperswil (around 1252/62 –1309), her sons
Wernher von Homberg,
Reichsvogt and minnesang poet, and Count
Johann I. von Habsburg-Laufenburg-Rapperswil (* around 1295/97, † 1337). His son
Johann II († 1380), the opposition's leader against
Rudolf Brun, the mayor of Zürich, was arrested for two years, and the town walls of Rapperswil, its castle and Altendorf castle were destroyed by Brun in 1350.
Modern history Between 1358 and 1360
Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, built a wooden bridge across the lake that has been used to 1878 – measuring approximately in length and wide; 546 oak piles have been installed. In 1415, the town bought freedom for itself. In 1442, during
Old Zurich War, Rapperswil was in alliance with Zürich and the Habsburg Dynasty. In 1458 Rapperswil was controlled by the
Swiss Confederation as a so-called
Gemeine Herrschaft, i.e. under control of two cantons (Glarus and Schwyz) of the Old Swiss Confederation and their representative, a
Vogt at Rapperswil castle. Because of its strategic location along important infrastructure lines, and because of flourishing trade, the town grew rich. This allowed a certain degree of freedom (especially within the Habsburg-controlled territories and) within the Swiss Confederation which ended with the formation of the Swiss cantons by
Napoleon in 1799. In 1656 and 1712 (the
First War of Villmergen and the
Toggenburg War, or Second War of Villmergen, respectively), Rapperswil was involved in wars between the Catholic and Reformed
cantons of the Old Swiss Confederation. Rapperswil was at first part of the
Helvetic and the
canton of Linth's capital city. After the 1803
Act of Mediation, it joined the
canton of St. Gallen, and the former
Herrschaft Rapperswil was split into the municipalities of Rapperswil and Jona. On 1 January 2007 the former municipalities of Rapperswil and
Jona merged to form a new political entity:
Rapperswil-Jona has a population of 25,777 (December 2007). This makes it the second-largest town in the canton after the capital of
St. Gallen itself. == Culture ==