Frauenfeld

Frauenfeld grew around a castle on land belonging to Reichenau Abbey. First recorded in 1246, it was described as a town by 1286 and became part of the Habsburg territories. In the fourteenth century its castle served as an administrative centre, while jurisdiction over Thurgau was attached to the town in 1374.

The Swiss Confederates conquered Thurgau in 1460 and governed it from Frauenfeld. A confederate court sat there after 1499, and the governor took up residence in the castle after 1532. Catholics and Protestants shared civic government after the Reformation, alternating the office of mayor. From 1742 the Swiss federal assembly met regularly in Frauenfeld. Great fires in 1771 and 1788 destroyed almost all its houses; a decade later the French invasion ended the old Confederation, and Frauenfeld became capital of the new canton of Thurgau.