Thal

Geschichte

Thal is a village and municipality in the Wahlkreis (constituency) of Rorschach in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Besides the village of Thal itself, the municipality also includes the villages of Altenrhein, Buechen, Buriet and Staad.HistoryThal is first mentioned in 1163 as curtis tale.The 1983 UCI Road World Championships (cycling) took place in Altenrhein, a village in the municipality.GeographyThal has an area, of 9.6km2. Of this area, 44% is used for agricultural purposes, while 13.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 35.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (7.2%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes).The municipality was part of the Unterrheintal District, but in 2004 became part of the Rorschach Wahlkreis. It is located between the Appenzell foothills, the Buchberg and Lake Constance. It consists of the haufendorf village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Thal and (since 1803) the villages of Altenrhein, Buechen, Buriet, Staad and a number of scattered hamlets.In the North and East, the municipality borders the old bed of the Rhine river and Austria.