History
The Werd was already inhabited in 5000 BC, using stilt houses. Stone tools used by hunter-gatherers in the Middle Stone Age have been found. In the Neolithic, Werd provided an ideal place to settle. Between 1931 and 1935, the island was excavated under the direction of Karl Keller-Tarnuzzer. Numerous items such as stone axes, arrowheads, a flint sickle, pottery shards, bone fishhooks from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age came to light. Tools, weapons and jewelry from the Bronze Age were found.
Water levels of Lake Constance fell to an extreme low in the winter of 2005–2006. This uncovered a large waterfront areas and some prehistoric artifacts. A selection of prehistoric, Roman Era and medieval artifacts is on display at the entrance of the refectory on the island. Other important finds are now housed in the Museum of Archaeology in Frauenfeld and in the local museum in Eschenz.
In 50 BCE, the Romans built a pile bridge between Rhaetia and Magna Germania via the island. The two bridge sections had a length of 220 and 217 meters and a width of six meters. This Roman road, known in the literature as the Rheatian Boundary Street [1] led from the Vicus Tasgetium (Eschenz) via Rielasingen, Singen, Friedingen, Steißlingen, Orsingen, Vilsingen and Inzigkofen to a ford across the Danube at Laiz. In Orsingen there was a junction to Pfullendorf and Burgweiler. Near Dürren Ast, there was a further junction through the Ablach Valley to Meßkirch, Krauchenwies and Mengen-Ennetach. [2]
Archipelago
Werd is the main island of a small island group. It has an area of 1.59 hectare belongs to the ward Untereschenz of the municipality of Eschenz, in the Swiss Canton Thurgau. The highest point of the island is 398 metres above sea level or 2 metres above lake level (396 m).
It is connected to the south bank of the river by a 125 meter long wooden bridge.
The two smaller islands in the group belong to the municipality of Stein am Rhein of Canton of Schaffhausen. They are uninhabited and form the nature reserve and bird sanctuary Middle and lower Werdli. Middle Werdli island has an area of 0.4 hectares; Lower Werdli measures 0.6 hectares.
The boundary between the cantons of Thurgau and Schaffhausen, follows the center line of the Rhine here. [3]
The bridge at Stein am Rhein is generally considered to be the boundary between the Lower Lake of Lake Constance and the High Rhine. [4] The Werd islands lie just above the bridge and are therefore inland islands, not river islands. The Western tip of Lower Werli is about 320 meters upstream from the bridge.
The Rhine is one of the major European rivers. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps, forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein, Swiss-Austrian, Swiss-German and then the Franco-German border, then flows in a mostly northerly direction through the German Rhineland and the Netherlands and eventually empties into the North Sea.
Lake Constance refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (Obersee), Lower Lake Constance (Untersee), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Lake Rhine (Seerhein). These waterbodies lie within the Lake Constance Basin, which is part of the Alpine Foreland and through which the Rhine flows.
Konstanz is a Landkreis (district) in the south of Baden-Württemberg on the German-Swiss border, situated along the shores of Lake Constance. Neighboring districts are Schwarzwald-Baar, Tuttlingen, Sigmaringen and Bodenseekreis. To the south it borders the Swiss cantons of Zurich, Thurgau and Schaffhausen. The municipality of Büsingen am Hochrhein is an exclave of Germany completely surrounded by Swiss territory.
The canton of Schaffhausen, also canton of Schaffouse is the northernmost canton of Switzerland. The principal city and capital of the canton is Schaffhausen. The canton's territory is divided into three non-contiguous segments, where German territory reaches the Rhine. The large central part, which includes the capital, in turn separates the German exclave of Büsingen am Hochrhein from the rest of Germany.
The Alpine Rhine Valley is a glacial alpine valley, formed by the part of the Alpine Rhine between the confluence of the Anterior Rhine and Posterior Rhine at Reichenau and the Alpine Rhine's mouth at Lake Constance. It covers three countries and the full length of the Alpine Rhine is 93.5 km.
Thurgau, anglicized as Thurgovia, more formally the Canton of Thurgau, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts and its capital is Frauenfeld.
The High Rhine is the name used for the part of the Rhine that flows westbound from Lake Constance to Basel. The High Rhine begins at the out flow of the Rhine from the Untersee in Stein am Rhein and turns into the Upper Rhine in Basel. In contrast to the Alpine Rhine and Upper Rhine, the High Rhine flows mostly to the west.
Eschenz is a municipality in Frauenfeld District in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.
Diessenhofen is a village and a municipality in Frauenfeld District in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. The village is situated on the south shore of the High Rhine just opposite the German town of Gailingen am Hochrhein.
The Swiss Northeastern Railway was an early railway company in Switzerland. It also operated shipping on Lake Constance (Bodensee) and Lake Zürich. Until the merger of the Western Swiss Railways into the Jura–Simplon Railway (JS) in 1890/91, it was the largest Swiss railway company.
The Schiener Berg, also called the Schienerberg, is a hill ridge between Horn in the county of Constance in the German state of Baden-Württemberg and Stein am Rhein in the district of Stein, in the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen. It is up to 715.6 m above sea level (NHN) and part of the Lake Constance peninsula of Höri in the Southwest Hegau Uplands. The name is derived from the settlement of Schienen which is roughly in the centre of the region Schienen. – von der namensgebenden Ortschaft Schienen aus im Uhrzeigersinn beginnend im Nordwesten betrachtet und die naturräumliche Lage mit einbezogen –
The Seerhein is a river about four kilometres long, in the basin of Lake Constance. It is the outflow of the Upper Lake Constance and the main tributary of the Lower Lake Constance. The water level of the lower lake is about 30 cm below the level of the Upper Lake. It is considered part of the Rhine, which flows into Lake Constance as the Alpine Rhine and flows out of the Lake as the High Rhine. The Seerhein arose after the last Ice Age. Some time after this period, the water level of Lake Constance gradually dropped by about ten metres and the shallow parts fell dry. Some parts of the Seerhein still have a character a bit like a lake.
The Obersee, also known as Upper Lake Constance, is the much larger of the two parts of Lake Constance, the other part being the Untersee.
The Untersee, also known as Lower Lake Constance, is the smaller of the two lakes that together form Lake Constance and forms part of the boundary between Switzerland and Germany.
The Biber is a small river in the borderland between Germany and Switzerland. The source is located at Watterdingen in the municipality Tengen, district of Constance in Baden-Wuerttemberg. After about 31 kilometres (19 mi) the Biber river flows into the Rhine at the Bibermühle west of Hemishofen in the Canton of Schaffhausen. The Biber is the largest tributary of the High Rhine on the stretch between Stein am Rhein and Schaffhausen.
The Dominican Island or Constance Island is an island in Lake Constance immediately east of the city of Constance. With an area of 1.8 hectares, it is one of the smaller islands in the lake. The island is separated from the city center by a six-metre-wide (20 ft) channel, and connected to it by a bridge. The island is dominated by the Steigenberger hotel, which is housed in the former Dominican convent.
The border between the modern states of Germany and Switzerland extends to 362 kilometres (225 mi), mostly following the High Rhine between Lake Constance and Basel.
The Wörth Castle is a fortification in the Swiss municipality of Neuhausen am Rheinfall in the Canton of Schaffhausen.
The Rhine leaves that part of Lake Constance known as the Upper Lake or Obersee as the Seerhein near Konstanz. After six kilometres it forms the Rheinsee, through which the river current flows. At its outflow is the island of Werd with its Franciscan monastery. The Rheinsee, together with the Zeller See and the Gnadensee, which surround the island of Reichenau, form the Untersee. The latter, together with the Seerhein, are considered part of Lake Constance.
The Hauptstrasse 13 is a Hauptstrasse in the Swiss cantons of Schaffhausen, Zürich, Thurgau, St. Gallen, Grisons and Ticino. The main road begins at the German border at Trasadingen at the Bundesstraße 34 and ends at the Strada Statale 34 at the Italian border at Brissago. Between the border crossing Trasadingen / Erzingen and the A4 at Schaffhausen it is part of European route E54. The total length of Hauptstrasse 13 is approximately 320 kilometers.
