Bülach
Encyclopedia
Bülach (ˈbylɑχ) is a municipality
Municipalities of Switzerland
Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...

 in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 in the canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 of Zurich, located in the district of the same name
Bülach (district)
Bülach District is one of 12 districts of the Canton of Zürich in Switzerland, with some 117,000 inhabitants the third largest in the canton. Its administrative capital is Bülach, the largest municipality is Kloten, the location of Zurich Airport...

, and belongs to the Glatt Valley
Glatt Valley
The Glatt Valley is a region and a river valley in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.- Geography :The River Glatt is a tributary of the River Rhine in the Zürcher Unterland area of the Canton of Zurich...

 (German: Glattal).

History

Bülach is first mentioned in 811 as Pulacha. From early times it fell within the province of the Alamanni
Alamanni
The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Rhine river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211 to 217 and claimed thereby to be...

: Joachim Werner
Joachim Werner (archaeologist)
Joachim Werner was a German archaeologist who was especially concerned with the archaeology of the Early Middle Ages in Germany...

's description of the early cemetery excavated there was published in 1953.

Geography

Bülach has an area of 16.1 km² (6.2 sq mi). Of this area, 33.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 39.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 26.9% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.4%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

The municipality is located around the lower Glatt Valley
Glatt Valley
The Glatt Valley is a region and a river valley in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.- Geography :The River Glatt is a tributary of the River Rhine in the Zürcher Unterland area of the Canton of Zurich...

. The town of Bülach and the village of Niederflachs are in the valley. Around the town are the hamlets
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 of Heimgarten am Rinsberg, Eschenmosen (since 1919, earlier part of Winkel
Winkel
Winkel may refer to:*Winkel, Haut-Rhin, a place in the Haut-Rhin department, France*Winkel , a town in the Netherlands*Winkel , a village in the Netherlands*Winkel , a village in the Netherlands...

) and Nussbaumen am Dettenberg. The municipality of Bachenbülach was part of Bülach until 1849 when it became an independent municipality. Bülach is located on the old road from Zürich through Kloten
Kloten
-External links:* -References:...

 to Eglisau
Eglisau
Eglisau is a municipality in the district of Bülach in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.-History:Eglisau is first mentioned in 892 as several independent farm houses known as Ouwa. In 1238 it was mentioned as Owe, in 1304 as ze Seglinger Owe, in 1332 as ze Eglins Owe and in 1352 as ze...

.

Demographics

Bülach has a population (as of ) of . , 22.6% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 17.8%. Most of the population speaks German (83.9%), with Italian being second most common ( 4.7%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 2.5%).

In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...

 which received 38.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (17%), the CSP
Christian Social Party (Switzerland)
The Christian Social Party is a political party in Switzerland. The CSP is more social democratic than the CVP. With the moderate Christian left as its background, the CSP commits itself to social democratic and environmentalist political solutions...

 (12.5%) and the FDP
Free Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Free Democratic Party was a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It was one of the major parties in Switzerland until its merger with the smaller classical liberal Liberal Party, to form FDP.The Liberals on 1 January 2009....

 (11.2%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.1% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 64.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 12.2%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Bülach about 73.2% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule
Fachhochschule
A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...

).

The historical population is given in the following table:
year population
Late Middle Ages less than 500
16-18th Centuries about 1,000
1836 1,278
1850 1,545
1900 2,175
1920 3,239
1950 4,634
1970 11,043
2000 13,999

Attractions

The Reformed Church and the popular Sigristenkeller gallery stand on a small hill, and are surrounded by pretty old buildings, including the Pfarrhaus and the old Tithe Barn. The church is named after Saint Laurentius, to whom the town's coat of arms is dedicated. Saint Laurentius was deacon to Pope Sixtus II
Pope Sixtus II
Pope Sixtus II or Pope Saint Sixtus II was Pope from August 30, 257 to August 6, 258. He died as a martyr during the persecution by Emperor Valerian....

, and became a martyr when he was condemned to death by fire in 258 AD. The church forms a well-matched unit with the Town Hall, and has a tower rising above it to a height of 74 meters. Also on the first Saturday of every month at 6pm, trumpeters play for half an hour from the top of the tower.

Duke Leopold III of Austria (Habsburg) granted Bulach a town charter in 1384, including its own jurisdiction and the right to hold its own market.

Economy and transport

One of its most important institutions and its biggest employer (over 700 employees) is the regional hospital Spital Bülach with 200 acute beds. Another important employer is the traditional glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

 producer Vetropack.

Bülach has an unemployment rate of 3.07%. , there were 130 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 36 businesses involved in this sector. 1893 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 133 businesses in this sector. 5596 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 607 businesses in this sector.

Bülach is a node of the Zürich S-Bahn
Zürich S-Bahn
The Zurich S-Bahn system is a network of rapid transit rail lines that has been incrementally expanded to cover the ZVV area, which comprises the entire canton of Zurich and portions of neighboring cantons The Zurich S-Bahn system is a network of rapid transit rail lines that has been...

 on the lines S22
S22 (ZVV)
The S22 is a regional railway line of the Zürich S-Bahn on the ZVV . It connects the cantons of Zürich and Schaffhausen, Switzerland, with the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany.- Route :...

, S41
S41 (ZVV)
The S41 is a regional railway line of the Zürich S-Bahn on the ZVV . It connects the cantons of Zürich and Aargau, Switzerland with the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany.- Route :...

 and S5
S5 (ZVV)
The S5 is a regional railway line of the S-Bahn Zürich on the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund , Zürich transportation network, and is one of the network's lines connecting the cantons of Zürich, St...

. Its train station is a 24 minute (S5) ride from Zürich Hauptbahnhof.

It also has a direct bus link from Zürich Airport which takes 25 minutes on 530 service.

External links

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