General Notes

OCCU Count in the ThurgauThurgau(German), French THURGOVIE,  canton, northeastern Switzerland.It is borderedon the north by Lake Constance (Bodensee), by the Rhine River onthe northwest, and by
thecantons of Sankt Gallen on the south and Zrich and Schaffhausenon the west. With an areaof 391 square miles (1,013 square km), it is divided into threehill masses: one stretchingalong the lake;
another inland, bounded north by the Thur Riverand south by its affluent, theMurg; and the third at the southern extremity of the canton,merging into the pre-Alpine zoneof Mount Hrnli. Frauenfeld
(q.v.) is the capital.Inhabited by lake dwellers (the Pfyn culture) in prehistorictimes, it was later part of theRoman province of Raetia for several centuries until AD 450,after which it passed to
theAlamanni, a Germanic tribe. From the 8th century on, it appearedas a political unit,extending as far west as the Reuss River and as far south as thefoot of the Alps. In the laterEuropean Middle
Ages the county of Thurgau, already much reducedin size, belongedsuccessively to the dukes of Zringen and the counts of Kyburg.With the extinction of theKyburg line in 1264, the county passed to
the Habsburgs, fromwhom it was seized by theconfederated Swiss states in 1460 and thenceforth ruled as asubject district. In 1798 itbecame a canton of the Helvetic Republic and in 1803 a fullmember
of the SwissConfederation. Its cantonal constitution dates from 1869.Thurgau is a prosperous agricultural area known for apples andpears and for cider making.There are vineyards along the lake and
in the Thur valley.Industries include printing,handicrafts, and the manufacture of textiles, shoes, and motorvehicles. The canton istraversed by two railways with several branch lines. Thepopulation
is mostlyGerman-speaking and about two-thirds Protestant and one-thirdRoman Catholic. Pop. (1989est.) 198,371.Copyright (c) 1996 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. All RightsReserved
DATE 14 MAR 1999