Feldkirch

Feldkirch lies near the Alpine Rhine, on a route between Italy and the lands around Lake Constance. A Roman settlement called Clunia stood in the district, probably serving as a weighing station on the road between Milan and Brigantium. The medieval town was first recorded as a city in 1218, after Count Hugo of Montfort built Schattenburg Castle above it. The Gothic church of St Nicholas and the castle gave the town prominent landmarks within its walls.

A Jesuit school was established in Feldkirch in 1651 and remained until 1773. The wars of Revolutionary France reached the town in March 1799. On the seventh of the month French troops under Nicolas Oudinot defeated an Austrian force; on the twenty-third, an Austrian army under Franjo Jelačić repelled a larger French force commanded by André Masséna at Feldkirch.