Romanshorn

On 2 February 779, the noblewoman Waldrata and her son Waldbert donated their property in 'Rumanishorn' to the Abbey of St. Gallen, including a church dedicated to Mary, Peter, and Gallus. This is the first documented mention of Romanshorn. The name likely derives from a personal name ('Romanus') combined with 'Horn' (a peninsula jutting into Lake Constance). The donation bound Romanshorn to the powerful Benedictine monastery of St. Gallen for over a thousand years. The Alte Kirche (Old Church) is one of the oldest documented churches in the Thurgau region and is today a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

On 22 February 1869, the Wuerttemberg State Railway and the Swiss Northeastern Railway opened a train ferry between Friedrichshafen and Romanshorn, one of the earliest international lake ferry services in Europe. The first vessel was a paddle steamer designed by Scottish engineer John Scott Russell, famous for co-designing the SS Great Eastern with Brunel. It could carry entire railway wagons across the lake but was soon nicknamed a 'coal eater,' consuming 600-720 kg of coal per crossing. It was retired in 1883. The train ferry service continued until 1976, when it was replaced by car ferries.

Locorama is a railway museum housed in the former SBB locomotive depot near Romanshorn station, the very place where the railway arrived on 16 May 1855. The depot building dates from 1898 and includes a historic turntable and signal bridge with 8 signals. It was once an important turnaround point for goods trains running between Switzerland and Germany across the lake. Key exhibits include the Ec 3/5 tender steam locomotive (built 1912), a Bavarian S 3/6 express steam locomotive, and the electric Ae 6/6 and Ae 4/7 locomotives. The arrival of the railway in 1855 transformed the sleepy farming village of 1,408 inhabitants into a booming transport hub of 4,577 by 1900.

Directly across the lake from Romanshorn lies Friedrichshafen, birthplace of the Zeppelin airship. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin began construction of his first rigid airship (LZ 1) in June 1898 in a floating wooden hangar on the lake at Manzell near Friedrichshafen. On 2 July 1900, LZ 1 made its maiden flight from the lake surface, lasting about 18 minutes and covering roughly 6 km, reaching an altitude of 410 metres. Residents of Romanshorn had a front-row view of the great airships rising from the opposite shore. The Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen is easily reachable from Romanshorn via the ferry in 41 minutes.

In 1528-1529, the Reformation reached Romanshorn. Pastor Itelhans Bertz and the entire congregation converted to the Reformed faith. Beginning around 1563, both Catholics and Protestants shared the Alte Kirche under a simultaneum arrangement confirmed by the Swiss Diet. This shared use lasted over 300 years. In 1872, the two denominations created separate cemeteries as the first spatial separation. In 1911, a new Protestant church was consecrated, and in 1913 a new Catholic church was built, ending the centuries-long practice. The Alte Kirche, dating to the 779 donation, is today a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

Today, three double-ended ferries -- MF Friedrichshafen, MF Romanshorn, and MF Euregia -- operate the Friedrichshafen-Romanshorn route year-round, 365 days a year at hourly intervals. The MF Euregia, built in 1996 at the Bodan-Werft in Kressbronn, is 60 meters long and 13 meters wide. The crossing covers approximately 13.6 km, the widest part of Lake Constance, in about 41 minutes. In 2009, the Euregia alone transported over 586,000 passengers, 63,300 cars, 56,200 bicycles, and 8,200 trucks. The ferry saves travellers a long drive around the lake and is often called a 'floating bridge' between Switzerland and Germany.

In 1836, Joachim Fatzer started a hemp rope factory in Romanshorn at the age of 17. The company grew with the steamship era, supplying ropes for the Lake Constance fleet. Around 1900, Fatzer AG transitioned to steel wire rope production, and by 1985 produced 2,000 tonnes of steel wire annually. Today Fatzer supplies wire ropes for world-record ropeways worldwide and remains headquartered in Romanshorn. The company's history mirrors the town's own transformation from agricultural village to industrial hub.

The castle hill (Schlossberg) has been a focal point of Romanshorn since the medieval period, with historical images dating back to 1760 showing its prominence above the lake. The 'New Castle' was built in 1404 and served from 1367 to 1798 as the seat of the Prince-Abbot's regional administrator. The castle was rebuilt in 1617/18 and completely modernized in 1931. In May 2017 it reopened as the Hotel Schloss Romanshorn. The Alte Kirche nearby preserves 14th-century fresco fragments in red chalk on the choir's east wall. Both the castle and church are listed in the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites, and the Seepark stretches along the lakefront on the Schlossberg hillside.