Zwischbergen
Encyclopedia
Zwischbergen is a municipality
in the district of Brig in the canton
of Valais
in Switzerland
.
on the Italian
border. Although the majority language has been German for a long time, the population is partly of Italian descent. Gondo belonged to the dominion of Novara, until Boniface de Challant, the Bishop of Sion, bought the rights to the village in 1291 from Count de Castello. However, the parish
of Gondo first belonged to the diocese of Sion
in 1822. For much of the history of the village a school was held in the rectory
, but in 1958 a schoolhouse was built.
A new church was built in 1495 in the village. Disagreements over appointing the administrators of the new church in the middle of the 15th Century led to the creation of a municipal corporation and municipal statutes.
Some of the families in Simplon
and Gondo became wealthy through freight transport and smuggling over the pass. With their wealth, they became an important part in the political landscape of Valais. Between 1550 and 1897 there were gold mines
in the valley. Starting in 1640 a postal riders between Lyon
and Milan
stopped in Gondo.
In the 18th and 19th Centuries the village was hit by devastating avalanches. On 14 October 2000, a third of the village was destroyed by a landslide that claimed 13 lives and destroyed eight buildings, including the western part of the Stockalper tower, which was built in 1650.
Zwischbergen has an area, , of 86.1 square kilometre. Of this area, 13.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 24.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.4% is settled (buildings or roads) and 62.1% is unproductive land.
The village of Gondo, on the Simplon Pass road, is located in the municipality.
of the municipal coat of arms
is Per fess Argent, between two Peaks Vert in chief a Sun Or, and Vert a Path Argent. Since zwischenbergen means between mountains, the two mountains on the coat of arms are an example of canting arms
.
Most of the population speaks German
(69 or 88.5%) as their first language, Italian
is the second most common (4 or 5.1%) and Spanish
is the third (3 or 3.8%). There is 1 person who speaks French
.
, the gender distribution of the population was 58.8% male and 41.2% female. The population was made up of 54 Swiss men (52.9% of the population) and 6 (5.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 40 Swiss women (39.2%) and 2 (2.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 48 or about 61.5% were born in Zwischbergen and lived there in 2000. There were 14 or 17.9% who were born in the same canton, while 7 or 9.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 8 or 10.3% were born outside of Switzerland.
The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.4%. , there were 31 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 36 married individuals, 7 widows or widowers and 4 individuals who are divorced.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.59 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.63 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 35.5% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
or a rent-to-own agreement).
, there were 31 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 9 households that consist of only one person and 3 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 33 households that answered this question, 27.3% were households made up of just one person and there was 1 adult who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 8 married couples without children, 8 married couples with children There were 4 single parents with a child or children. There was 1 household that was made up of unrelated people and 2 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 10 single family homes (or 25.6% of the total) out of a total of 39 inhabited buildings. There were 16 multi-family buildings (41.0%), along with 10 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (25.6%) and 3 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (7.7%).
, a total of 31 apartments (41.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 28 apartments (37.8%) were seasonally occupied and 15 apartments (20.3%) were empty. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.41%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
.
the most popular party was the CVP
which received 62.33% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP
(30.75%), the SP
(4.43%) and the Green Party
(1.94%). In the federal election, a total of 52 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
was 66.7%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat
election a total of 48 votes were cast, of which or about 0.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 68.6%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election
election a total of 52 votes were cast, of which or about 0.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 74.3%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
the total number of full-time equivalent
jobs was 60. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 2, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 15 of which or (0.0%) were in manufacturing The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 43. In the tertiary sector; 8 or 18.6% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 10 or 23.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 9 or 20.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was the insurance or financial industry.
, there were 64 workers who commuted into the municipality and 16 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 4.0 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 34.4% of the workforce coming into Zwischbergen are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 25% used public transportation to get to work, and 40.6% used a private car.
.
). Of the 2 who completed tertiary schooling, 50.0% were Swiss men, 50.0% were Swiss women.
, there were 3 students from Zwischbergen who attended schools outside the 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 the district of Brig 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 Valais
Valais
The Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...
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....
.
Gondo
The village of Gondo, which is part of Zwischenbergen, is located at the southern foot of the Simplon PassSimplon Pass
Simplon Pass is a high mountain pass between the Pennine Alps and the Lepontine Alps in Switzerland. It connects Brig in the canton of Valais with Domodossola in Piedmont . The pass itself and the villages on each side of it, such as Gondo, are in Switzerland...
on the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
border. Although the majority language has been German for a long time, the population is partly of Italian descent. Gondo belonged to the dominion of Novara, until Boniface de Challant, the Bishop of Sion, bought the rights to the village in 1291 from Count de Castello. However, the parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
of Gondo first belonged to the diocese of Sion
Sion, Switzerland
Sion is the capital of the Swiss canton of Valais. it had a population of .Landmarks include the Basilique de Valère and Château de Tourbillon. Sion has an airfield for civilian and military use, which, because of its location in a valley, causes a reasonable amount of noise pollution. FC Sion...
in 1822. For much of the history of the village a school was held in the rectory
Rectory
A rectory is the residence, or former residence, of a rector, most often a Christian cleric, but in some cases an academic rector or other person with that title...
, but in 1958 a schoolhouse was built.
A new church was built in 1495 in the village. Disagreements over appointing the administrators of the new church in the middle of the 15th Century led to the creation of a municipal corporation and municipal statutes.
Some of the families in Simplon
Simplon, Valais
Simplon is a municipality in the district of Brig in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.-History:...
and Gondo became wealthy through freight transport and smuggling over the pass. With their wealth, they became an important part in the political landscape of Valais. Between 1550 and 1897 there were gold mines
Gold mining
Gold mining is the removal of gold from the ground. There are several techniques and processes by which gold may be extracted from the earth.-History:...
in the valley. Starting in 1640 a postal riders between Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
and Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
stopped in Gondo.
In the 18th and 19th Centuries the village was hit by devastating avalanches. On 14 October 2000, a third of the village was destroyed by a landslide that claimed 13 lives and destroyed eight buildings, including the western part of the Stockalper tower, which was built in 1650.
Geography
The village of Gondo, on the Simplon Pass road, is located in the municipality.
Coat of arms
The blazonBlazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image...
of the municipal coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
is Per fess Argent, between two Peaks Vert in chief a Sun Or, and Vert a Path Argent. Since zwischenbergen means between mountains, the two mountains on the coat of arms are an example of canting arms
Canting arms
Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name in a visual pun or rebus. The term cant came into the English language from Anglo-Norman cant, meaning song or singing, from Latin cantāre, and English cognates include canticle, chant, accent, incantation and recant.Canting arms –...
.
Demographics
Zwischbergen has a population of . , 12.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -35.4%. It has changed at a rate of -24.1% due to migration and at a rate of -11.4% due to births and deaths.Most of the population speaks German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
(69 or 88.5%) as their first language, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
is the second most common (4 or 5.1%) and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
is the third (3 or 3.8%). There is 1 person who speaks French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
.
, the gender distribution of the population was 58.8% male and 41.2% female. The population was made up of 54 Swiss men (52.9% of the population) and 6 (5.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 40 Swiss women (39.2%) and 2 (2.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 48 or about 61.5% were born in Zwischbergen and lived there in 2000. There were 14 or 17.9% who were born in the same canton, while 7 or 9.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 8 or 10.3% were born outside of Switzerland.
The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.4%. , there were 31 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 36 married individuals, 7 widows or widowers and 4 individuals who are divorced.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.59 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.63 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 35.5% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...
or a rent-to-own agreement).
, there were 31 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 9 households that consist of only one person and 3 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 33 households that answered this question, 27.3% were households made up of just one person and there was 1 adult who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 8 married couples without children, 8 married couples with children There were 4 single parents with a child or children. There was 1 household that was made up of unrelated people and 2 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 10 single family homes (or 25.6% of the total) out of a total of 39 inhabited buildings. There were 16 multi-family buildings (41.0%), along with 10 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (25.6%) and 3 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (7.7%).
, a total of 31 apartments (41.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 28 apartments (37.8%) were seasonally occupied and 15 apartments (20.3%) were empty. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.41%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Heritage sites of national significance
The Ruin of the Gold Mine at Gondo is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significanceSwiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance
The Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance is a register of some 8,300 items of cultural property in Switzerland...
.
Politics
In the 2007 federal electionSwiss federal election, 2007
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007...
the most popular party was the CVP
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...
which received 62.33% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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...
(30.75%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
(4.43%) and the Green Party
Green Party of Switzerland
The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland, and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.-History:...
(1.94%). In the federal election, a total of 52 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...
was 66.7%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat
Conseil d'Etat (Switzerland)
In Switzerland, Conseil d'Etat is the name of the council constituting the cantonal government of French-speaking cantons. It is not to be confused with the Conseil des États which is a chamber of the Swiss parliament....
election a total of 48 votes were cast, of which or about 0.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 68.6%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election
Swiss Council of States election, 2007
Elections were held to the Council of States of Switzerland in October and November 2007 as part of the 2007 federal election. All 46 members of the Council of States were elected from all cantons of Switzerland. The first round was held on 21 October...
election a total of 52 votes were cast, of which or about 0.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 74.3%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Zwischbergen had an unemployment rate of 0%. , there were 3 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 1 business involved in this sector. 15 people were employed in the secondary sector and there was 1 business in this sector. 52 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 11 businesses in this sector. There were 32 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 21.9% of the workforce.the total number of full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent , is a unit to measure employed persons or students in a way that makes them comparable although they may work or study a different number of hours per week. FTE is often used to measure a worker's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organization...
jobs was 60. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 2, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 15 of which or (0.0%) were in manufacturing The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 43. In the tertiary sector; 8 or 18.6% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 10 or 23.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 9 or 20.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was the insurance or financial industry.
, there were 64 workers who commuted into the municipality and 16 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 4.0 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 34.4% of the workforce coming into Zwischbergen are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 25% used public transportation to get to work, and 40.6% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 73 or 93.6% were Roman Catholic, while 1 or 1.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed ChurchSwiss Reformed Church
The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...
.
Education
In Zwischbergen about 31 or (39.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 2 or (2.6%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a FachhochschuleFachhochschule
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...
). Of the 2 who completed tertiary schooling, 50.0% were Swiss men, 50.0% were Swiss women.
, there were 3 students from Zwischbergen who attended schools outside the municipality.