Bichelsee is a village and former municipality in the

canton of Thurgau Thurgau (; french: Thurgovie; it, 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 ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. It takes its name from the nearby lake, Bichelsee. The municipality also contained the villages Höfli, Niederhofen am Bichelsee and Itaslen.

History

Bichelsee is first mentioned in 894 as ''Pichelense''. The Udalrichinger family donated the village of Bichelsee, in the Early Middle Ages, to the Abbey of St. Gallen. During the High Middle Ages, the Bichelsee family ruled the village as a fief for the Abbey. Originally they ruled from Alt-Bichelsee Castle, though in the early 13th century, they built Neu-Bichelsee Castle. This castle was destroyed in 1274 by the

Habsburgs The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

. In 1358 Hermann IV of Landsberg-Greifensee acquired Alt-Bichelsee Castle along with various rights and possessions, including the

bailiwick A bailiwick () is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and once also applied to territories in which a privately appointed bailiff exercised the sheriff's functions under a royal or imperial writ. The bailiwick is probably modelled on th ...

of Balterswil. In 1407, Alt-Bichelsee was burned by

Appenzell Appenzell is a historic canton in the northeast of Switzerland, and entirely surrounded by the canton of St. Gallen. Appenzell became independent of the Abbey of Saint Gall in 1403 and entered a league with the Old Swiss Confederacy in 1411, ...

troops. After rebuilding the castle, the Abbey of Fischingen bought the castle, land and parish in 1419–21. It remained part of the Fischingen court until 1798. However, the village of Itaslen was not part of Bichelsee at this time. It was part of the Tannegg district and an independent municipality until 1812. The parish church of St. Nicholas (later St. Blasius church) was occupied from 1275 and probably built in the 12th century under the leadership of Fischingen Abbey. The Abbey supported the church until 1769. In 1529 the village converted to the new faith during the Protestant Reformation in 1529, but returned to their old faith in 1542 during the

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...

. The Reformed church members were part of the parish of Dussnang since 1550. St. Blasius church remained a

shared church A shared church (german: Simultankirche), simultaneum mixtum, a term first coined in 16th-century Germany, is a church in which public worship is conducted by adherents of two or more religious groups. Such churches became common in the German-sp ...

, even after a new church was built in 1864, until 1954. In 1960 a new Reformed church was built. Agriculture and small industries still dominated the local economy until the late 20th century. Since the end of the 19th century, cropland and orchards have been segregated from the dairy industry. Small-scale home weaving and embroidery became common in the early 19th century but declined by about 1900. In 1899, Johann Evangelist Traber founded the first Swiss Raiffeisen bank. The largest employer is the Traxler AG embroidery firm (founded 1908). With increased immigration after 1970 and the construction of many new houses, it became a commuter town; by 1990, about 62% of the population commuted. In 1996 the municipality was merged with the neighboring municipality

Balterswil Balterswil is a village and former municipality in the canton of Thurgau, Switzerland. The municipality also contained the villages Lützelmurg, Zielwies, Ifwil and Lochwies. History Balterswil is first mentioned in 885 as ''Baldherreswilare'. ...

to form a new and larger municipality Bichelsee-Balterswil.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 14 January 2010

Historic population

The historical population is given in the following table:

References

* Former municipalities of Thurgau Villages in Thurgau {{Thurgau-geo-stub