The village is located along the northern shore of the upper Lake Zürich (Obersee) between Jona and Schmerikon. Bollingen was part of the former municipality of Jona: On 1 January 2007 the former municipalities of Rapperswil and Jona merged to form the new political entity Rapperswil-Jona.
In the European Middle Ages, the two settlements named Unterbollingen and Oberbollingen are mentioned as part of the later Herrschaft Rapperswil of the Counts of Rapperswil. The earliest document sealed at the Rapperswil Castle was related to the donation of the church of Unterbollingen to the Rüti Abbey, and also mentions among others a civitas of the town of Rapperswil as witnesses of Count Rudolf von Rapperswil in 1229.[3] On the peninsula at Oberbollingen, a St. Nicholas Chapel is mentioned, where around 1229 a small Cistercian nunnery, later Premonstratensian convent associated with the Rüti Abbey was established by the Counts of Rapperswil; in 1267 it was united with the nearby MariazellWurmsbach Abbey. In 1519 a new church in honor of St. Pancras was inaugurated in Unterbollingen. After the Reformation in Zürich the church was acquired by the city of Rapperswil to be united with the Heiliggeistspital, but since 1871 it is a parish church for its own.
Since railway services were suspended, public transport was reduced to a bus service. Until December 2023, bus line 621 operated between Rapperswil and Buech/St. Dyonis (closest bus stop is Buechstr. West, a ca. 30 minute walk away from Bollingen village).[4] Line 621 was subsumed into line 995, operated by Schneider Busbetriebe.[5] The route was shortened and the western terminus became Jona. As of December 2023, the bus route is as follows:
