Rankweil#

Rankweil, Vorarlberg, market town in the district of Feldkirch, alt. 480 m, pop. 10,509, area 21.87 km2, industrial and trade centre in the Rheintal valley, situated at the entrance to the Laternsertal valley, on the slopes of Liebfrauenberg hill (alt. 502 m). - Valduna Provincial Neurological Hospital with L. Boltzmann Institute of Neurorehabilitation, forest gardens of the Province of Vorarlberg, Chamber of Labour library, branch of the regional health and social insurance agency, youth centre, leisure activities centre, parent-and-child social centre, Carmelite convent of St. Teresa of the Infant Jesus, Islamic cultural centre, vocational school, advanced-level commercial school, upper secondary school for engineering and construction engineering, hydroelectric power plant on the Muehlbach stream; 5,667 employed persons (as of 1991), about 56 % of employment in the industrial sector, electrotechnical and textile industry; electric engineering, production of car components, fruit-juice production; services sector also significant: private, social and public services, trade; trade park. - Finds dating back to the Neolithic and Roman eras (remains of a Roman villa in Brederis, open-air museum); documented mention between 817 and 1209 as "Vinomna", a Carolingian court of justice was located here, 1354-1806 imperial provincial court (Landgericht); became part of Austria in 1390. - Parish and pilgrimage church Mary's Visitation (documented mention 1300, altered after 1470, extended in 1657, interior redecorated) with fortified churchyard, chapel with late Gothic miracle-working representation of the Virgin (1470), Romanesque crucifix (last years of the 12th century) with reliefs, small chapel on Fridolin Stein hill, built from special type of quartz marble, at the foot of this hill Romanesque church of St. Peter (documented mention 881, redecorated in Baroque style in 1624-1627), raguly cross (around 1400), furniture from the 18th  century; late Gothic church in Brederis (1506), its winged altarpiece (1510) is now in the modern Eusebius church (1958).

Literature#