Derived from the term "Ward" Island, the name Werd then originated, the definition for holm (river islet).

The small Rhine island at the lower end of Lake Constance has an important past. The earliest findings go all the way back to the pile dwellers, evidence of which is a bronze settlement that was excavated in 1932. The Romans also had a large settlement here, the largest so-called civilian settlement in the Canton of Thurgau.The first abbot of St. Gallen’s Monastery, Otmar, died 759 on Werd Island to where he had been banished, after being convicted by the Franconians.

The abbot was buried on the island, but 10 years later the monks from St. Gallen brought his remains back to their monastery and buried him a second time.In the 10th century a chapel was built on St. Othmar’s former gravesite. At the same time the Emperor Otto 1 donated Werd Island to Einsiedeln Monastery. In the 12th and 13th centuries the clergymen of Eschenz found accommodation in the attached presbytery.