Schaffhausen

Schaffhausen is a town with historic roots, a municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimated population of 36,000. It is located right next to the shore of the High Rhine; it is one of four Swiss towns – besides Neuhausen a. Rhf., the historic Neunkirch and Stein a. Rh. – that is located on the northern side of the Rhine.The old portion of the town has many fine Renaissance era buildings decorated with exterior frescos and sculpture, as well as the impressive old canton fortress, the Munot. Schaffhausen is also a railway junction of Swiss and German rail networks. One of the lines connects the town with the nearby Rhine Falls in Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Europe's largest waterfall, a tourist attraction.The official language of Schaffhausen is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect.EtymologyThe town is first mentioned in 1045 as Villa Scafhusun. There are at least two theories on the origin of this name: