[3] In 947, Otto I granted the abbot of St. Gall the right to operate markets, mint coins and levy tariffs at Rorschach.

Additionally, by moving closer to the important lake trade routes, he could make Rorschach into a major harbor and collect a fortune in taxes.

In turn Mayor Varnbüler and the city feared that a new harbor on the lake would cause trade to bypass St. Gallen and Appenzell.

[4] Though the city of St. Gallen and Appenzell opposed the new monastery, after the approval of Pope Sixtus IV and protracted negotiations with Emperor Friedrich III the corner stone of the new Mariaberg Abbey was laid on 21 March 1487.

On 28 July 1489 a group of 1200 Appenzellers and 350 St. Galleners assembled at Grub (now part of Eggersriet) and marched on the Abbey.

[6] The Abbey's vassals were supportive of the actions of the city and Appenzell and on 21 October 1489 signed the Waldkircher Bund with the rebels.

[5] The Abbot spent the following months seeking support from his allies in the Old Swiss Confederation to punish St. Gallen and Appenzell.

While the four allied cantons (Zürich, Lucerne, Schwyz and Glarus) generally supported the Abbot, the remainder of the Confederacy did not.

The peace treaty dissolved the Bund, restored the abbot's lands, allowed him to rebuild Mariaburg Abbey but required him to remain in St. Gallen.

Of the rest of the land, 90.4% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.6%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes).

[12] The historical population is given in the following table:[3] Train lines link the city to St. Gallen, St. Margrethen, and Romanshorn.

These include the Via Jacobi (one of the routes of the Way of St. James), the Alpenpanoramaweg to Geneva, and the Rheintaler Höhenweg to Sargans.

[12] The former granary (Kornhaus) at Hauptstrasse 58 and the former Benedictine Abbey of Mariaberg (now the Kantonales Lehrerseminar) at Seminarstrasse 27 are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance.

[16] In town, sights include the lake promenade, an aviation museum in Altenrhein as well as the castles of St. Anna, Wartensee, Sulzberg and Wartegg.

The Schlosslandschaft is shared between Berg, Goldach, Mörschwil, Rheineck, Rorschacherberg, St. Margrethen, Steinach, Thal and Tübach.