Gachnang - History

History

Gachnang is first mentioned in 889 as Kachanang. In the local dialect it has traditionally been known as Gochlingen.

In the Egelsee area (north of Niederwil) a number of significant artifacts from the Pfyn culture have been discovered. In 889 King Arnulf gave his follower Diethelm a manor house in Gachnang with ten dependent huts. From the 11th Century, Gachnang was a possession of the monastery of Reichenau. The Lords of Gachnang administered the village as a Ministerialis (unfree knights in the service of a feudal overlord) for first the Kyburg and later Reichenau Abbey. They ruled from the, now ruined, Alt-Gachnang Castle or from the Meierhof Meiersberg. In 1417, the Lords of Schinen began to rule over the village. Before 1500, they built Neu-Gachnang Castle. In 1562, the village was acquired by Kaspar Ludwig von Heidenheim, then in 1587 by Hector von Beroldingen and 1623 by Einsiedeln Abbey. The Abbey retained the low justice rights until 1798.

The parish of Gachnang existed well before 1000 and included a number of villages in the Thurgau and Zurich area, including the filial church at Ellikon an der Thur (until 1651) and Gerlikon (until 1874). The construction of the current church took place before the 13th Century. The border between the counties of Kyburg and Thurgau (now the boundary between the cantons of Zurich and Thurgau) ran through the middle of the parish, starting in 1427. In 1528 the entire municipality converted to the Protestant Reformation. In the wake of Gachnangerhandels of 1610 the parish was divided, and the (built in 1587) Catholic chapel became a parish church. The right to appoint a priest was held by Reichenau and the Bishop of Constance.

The farming village has not grown far from the medieval settlement centers of the church and castle. Only since the mid-20th Century has the village expanded into a typical residential community. In 1998 the villages of Kefikon, Islikon, Gerlikon, Niederwil and Oberwil merged with Gachnang.