Thurgau

Thurgau (ˈtuːrɡaʊ; Thurgovie; Turgovia; Turgovia), anglicized as Thurgovia, more formally the Canton of Thurgau, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts and its capital is Frauenfeld. Thurgau is part of Eastern Switzerland. It is named for the river Thur, and the name Thurgovia was historically used for a larger area, including part of this river's basin upstream of the modern canton. The area of what is now Thurgau was acquired as subject territories by the cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy from the mid 15th century. Thurgau was first declared a canton in its own right at the formation of the Helvetic Republic in 1798. The population, , is . In 2007, there were a total of 47,390 resident foreigners, constituting 19.9% of the population. History of Thurgau In prehistoric times the lands of the canton were inhabited by people of the Pfyn culture along Lake Constance. During Roman times the canton was part of the province Raetia until in 450 the lands were settled by the Alemanni. In the sixth century, Thurgovia became a Gau of Francia as part of Alamannia, passing to the Duchy of Swabia in the early 10th century. At this time, Thurgovia included not just what is now the canton of Thurgau, but also much of the territory of the modern canton of St. Gallen, the Appenzell and the eastern parts of the canton of Zürich. The most important cities of Thurgovia in the early medieval period were Konstanz as the seat of the bishop and St. Gallen for the Abbey of Saint Gall. The dukes of the House of Zähringen and the counts of the Kyburg family took over much of the land in the High Middle Ages. The town of Zürich was part of the Thurgau until it became reichsunmittelbar in 1218. When the Kyburg dynasty became extinct in 1264 the House of Habsburg took over that land. The Old Swiss Confederacy allied with ten freed bailiwicks of the former Toggenburg seized the lands of the Thurgau from the Habsburgs in 1460, and it became a subject territory of seven Swiss cantons (Zurich, Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug and Glarus).