The beautiful medieval town, which remains well preserved to this day,
was mentioned as a city for the first time in 1218, after Count Hugo von
Montfort built the "Schattenburg", a castle which still is the major
landmark of Feldkirch. Other sights in the town include the cathedral of
St. Nikolaus from the late Gothic period. Feldkirch was the birthplace
of Rheticus, and is currently the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of
Feldkirch.
The writer James Joyce paid a visit to Feldkirch in 1932
to see his friend Eugene Jolas. He famously said to Jolas "Over there,
on those tracks, the fate of Ulysses was decided in 1915". Joyce had
travelled through Feldkirch by train in 1915, when he moved from Trieste
to Zürich to avoid the complexities of living in Austria-Hungary during
World War I. The train was boarded and passengers inspected by
officials; if Joyce had been arrested then, he would have been unable to
write Ulysses in its present form. There is an area way in the town
named after him, and a dedication to him at Feldkirch railway station.
In
the 1990s Feldkirch has built a reputation of having a top ice hockey
team. They won the European Cup in 1997/1998 with stars such as
Gustafsson, Duus, and Rundqvist
