Sommeri is a municipality in the district of Arbon in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. History In 1967, Sommeri was created when the municipalities of Niedersommeri and Obersommeri merged. Sommeri is first mentioned in 905 as Sumbrinaro. Between 1474 and 1798, the vogteien of Niedersommeri and Obersommeri formed a court of the Prince-Abbot of St. Gall. In 1474 the Church of St. Mauritius was dedicated. It was renovated to its current appearance in the first half of the 15th Century. After the Protestant Reformation reached Sommeri in 1528, the church became a shared church for both faiths in 1534. Originally the major economic activities in Sommeri were predominantly grain production and forestry. In the second half of the 19th Century fruit production, hay production, cattle and dairy farming were added. A cheese factory was opened in 1852. In the last third of the 20th Century some industrial plants moved into the villages, especially embroidery and furniture manufacturing. At the beginning of the 21st Century there were companies in the HVAC industry, precision engineering and manufacturing school furniture in Sommeri. Geography Sommeri has an area, , of . Of this area, or 68.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 24.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.4% is settled (buildings or roads). Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.6% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 0.2% and transportation infrastructure made up less than 0.1%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.4%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 52.3% is used for growing crops, while 15.9% is used for orchards or vine crops. The municipality is located in the Arbon district, south of Romanshorn. It consists of the village of Sommeri and the hamlets of Buerüüti, Fälwis and Hungerbüel. Demographics Sommeri has a population () of . , 9.2% of the population are foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 1.6%. Most of the population () speaks German (95.5%), with Italian being second most common ( 0.9%) and Albanian being third ( 0.8%). , the gender distribution of the population was 50.3% male and 49.7% female. The population was made up of 225 Swiss men (44.0% of the population), and 32 (6.3%) non-Swiss men.