St. Othmar Chapel Insel Werd

The term "Ward", meaning island, gave rise to the name Werd, the term for river island. The small Rhine island at the lower foot of Lake Constance has an important past. The earliest traces go back to the time of the pile dwellers, whose evidence, a bronze settlement, was excavated in 1932. The Romans also had a large settlement here, the largest so-called civilian settlement in the canton of Thurgau. The first abbot of the monastery of Sankt Gallen, Otmar, died on the island of Werd in 759 after being exiled here as a convict of the Franks. The abbot was buried on the island, but was brought back to their monastery ten years later by the monks from St. Gallen and buried a second time. A chapel was built on the former burial site of St. Othmar in the 10th century. At the same time, Emperor Otto I donated the island of Werd to Einsiedeln Abbey. The clergymen of Eschenz now found a place to live in the priest's house, which was added in the 12th/13th century.