 It grew up around the Rüti Monastery, which was built at the bridge along the pilgrimage route through the Thurgau to Einsiedeln Abbey.Beginning in the Middle Ages, its hydropower was used for watermills along the Jona, later for textile production facilities.In the early 19th century, Rüti was one of the centers of the industrialization in the southeastern parts of the canton of Zürich.