Portrait

From about 1030 Niederurnen was demonstrably part of the church Schänis and from the 12th century Niederurnen belonged to the manorial estate of the monastery Schänis. In 1386, the Glarner destroyed the castle Oberwindegg, first mentioned in 1265, which stood in front of an offset of the Hirzli above the village, and absorbed Niederurnen in their land rights. The stewards of Windegg resided as administrators of the monastery of Säckingen until 1288, after which the Dukes of Habsburg took over the fiefdom and later also acquired the castle. In 1528 pictures and altars were removed from the St. Verena chapel and the inhabitants of Niederurnen changed to the new reformed faith by a majority. But the ecclesiastical separation of Schänis was only completed in 1605. In 1659 Niederurnen upgraded the chapel to a church. The 1937 newly built catholic Church of St. Joseph separated in 1956 from the mother church in Oberurnen and formed the new parish Niederurnen-Bilten.

​

In the Middle Ages, an alpine farming was largely operated. Probably the increasing alpine summering of cattle led in the 1540s to the foundation of the so-called Alpgenossenschaft (alp cooperative). Also the corporation comrades of the 1667 newly established Alt-Schatzkorporation (old treasure corporation) and the 1756 founded Neue Evangelische Schatzkorporation (new Evangelical treasure corporation) managed as hereditary members together their alps. The largest Glarner vineyard just located below the ruin Oberwindegg is documented for the first time around 1640. Thanks to the existing water power and the heyday of the mineral bath, which was used until the 20th century, numerous industries existed in the 17th century in Niederurnen. The former silk ribbon weaving mill (so-called Bandfabrik), restored in 1991, is dated back to the middle of the 18th century. Through the Linth correction the community won cultural, construction and industrial land. In the premises of the first textile printing company founded in 1830 (closed in 1896), asbestos cement production began in 1903 (today Eternit AG). In 1851, the Enderlin & Jenny spinning mill, which was built in Ziegelbrücke in 1834, bought a weaving mill in Niederurnen. In 1875 the community got a connection to the railway line of the northeast railway from Ziegelbrücke to Glarus.