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Leuk

Coordinates:46°19′N7°38′E/ 46.317°N 7.633°E/46.317; 7.633
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leuk
Municipality
Coat of arms of Leuk
Coat of arms
Location of Leuk
Map
Leuk is located in Switzerland
Leuk
Leuk
Leuk is located in Canton of Valais
Leuk
Leuk
Coordinates:46°19′N7°38′E/ 46.317°N 7.633°E/46.317; 7.633
CountrySwitzerland
CantonValais
DistrictLeuk
Government
•MayorRoberto Schmidt
Area
[1]
• Total44.1 km2(17.0 sq mi)
Elevation
731 m (2,398 ft)
Population
(31 December 2018)[2]
• Total3,948
• Density90/km2(230/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00(Central European Time)
• Summer (DST)UTC+02:00(Central European Summer Time)
Postal code(s)
3953
SFOS number6110
ISO 3166 codeCH-VS
LocalitiesBriannen, Gampinen, Leuk-Stadt, Pfyn, Pletschen, St. Josephsheim, Susten
Surrounded byAgarn,Albinen,Bratsch,Chandolin,Erschmatt,Guttet-Feschel,Inden,Salgesch,Turtmann,Varen
Twin townsMünchwilen, Thurgau(Switzerland)
Websitewww.leuk.ch
SFSO statistics

Leuk(French:Loèche-Ville) is amunicipalityin the district ofLeukin thecantonofValaisinSwitzerland.On 1 January 2013, the former municipality ofErschmattmerged into the municipality of Leuk.[3]

Historic aerial photograph by Werner Friedli from 1949

Since it controls access to theGemmi Pass,it had some importance from the time ofRomanRaetia.TheLeukerbadthermal baths are just north of Leuk, towards the pass. It is the capital of the Leuk district of the Valais.

Leuk is home to one of the known installations ofOnyx,the Swiss interception system forsignals intelligencegathering.[4]

History

[edit]

Leuk is first mentioned in 515 asvilla de Leuca.[5]

Leuk was already inhabited in thepre-Roman era.ScatteredLa Tène eragraves with poppy-head pins, brooches and abelt hookhave been found in Leuk. In the 6th century it belonged to thedemesneof theKing of BurgundySigismund, who donated it to the Abbey of Saint-Maurice. The local population ofRomanizedCeltsgradually became Germanized around the turn of the millennium due to invadingAlamanni.However, even by the 14th century there was still a strong Roman minority in Leuk.[5]

Romanesque tower of St. Stephan's church

The town's first church dates from the 6th or 7th century and probably originated from a Roman building. This church was replaced in the 9th century by a larger building. It was replaced again in the 11th and 12th centuries. Theromanesquebell tower of the current church is from this third building. The current church was built by Ulrich Ruffiner in thegothic style.It was richly furnished with altars and sculptures and was consecrated in 1494 as St. Stephan's Church by Bishop Jost von Silenen. In thecharnel house,with itsdance of deathfresco,26 statues dating from the 13th to 16th centuries were discovered in 1982 under about a meter (three feet) of bones. The statues including an excellentPietàfrom the 14th century. In addition to St. Stephan'sparish churchthere were several other churches in town. They include apilgrimagechapel at Thel and the Ringacker chapel, which was built in 1690-94 above aplaguecemetery. A Marian shrine, whose hermitage was inhabited by a hermit around 1720–1885, is one of the most important baroque rooms of the Valais.[5]

In theEarlyandHigh Middle AgesLeuk changed owners repeatedly until 1138 when it finally came under the authority of theBishop of Sion.The new rulers encouraged Leuk's development by granting concessions. In 1209 Leuk was given the right to have its own weights and measures. In 1285 they built a hospital and in 1310 they added a warehouse, one on the old trade route between northern Italy and the markets of Champagne. With the warehouse they established a group ofteamstersthat provided extra draft animals to help wagons make it over the mountains. The episcopalfiefholders Viztum and Meier built the Bishop's Castle (the seat of Meier) and the Viztumsturm (Viztum's tower). In the 14th century the castle ruled over three surrounding areas; Loye (Lobio), Tschablen (Cabulo) and Galdinen (Caldana). All three of those areas grew into independent municipalities. In 1458, Leuk codified the customary rights of the citizens into law. This "old castle law" was updated in 1563.[5]

With the decline of the feudal system, the weakening of the secular episcopal power and the rise of the democratic self-consciousness of the Valais, the old order was replaced with a new power structure. The former leading families of de Leuca, Perrini,Raronand Pontemallio were replaced with new families including: theWerra[fr],Mageran, Allet, Ambühl, Albertini, Gasner, Mayenzet, Zen-Ruffinen and Loretan. The village subsequently grew into an independent town with elegant homes and a new church. On the west, a tower and bridge were built in the Dala gorge. The Feschel gorge to the east was spanned with a bridge in 1563.

The two gorges and the river Rhone to the south provided excellent natural fortifications for the growing town. The borders of the town were the site of several bloody clashes. The first was the victory in 1296 of troops loyal to the bishop over the upper Valais nobility (including the vom Turn and von Raron families), who were supported by nobles from theBernese Oberland.In 1386, Leuk prevented the advance ofCount Amadeus VIIofSavoyinto the Upper Valais with the destruction of Dala bridge. In 1415, during the Rarner war, the Bishop's Castle and the Viztumsturm were destroyed by invaders. In 1541, Ulrich Ruffiner built the presentGothic-style town hall on the ruins of the Viztumsturm. During thefighting against the French in 1799,after theBattle of PfynLeuk was burned but escaped further damage.[5]

Theparishof Leuk is first documented in 1227. Starting in 1500 a number of surrounding villages left the Leuk parish to form their own daughter parishes, including; 1501 Leukerbad, 1660 Gampel, 1663 Turtmann, 1962 Susten. In the second half of the 16th century, the leading Leuker families tended toProtestantism.However, in 1604, when the Valais Grand Council met inVispand voted to remain with theCatholic faith,these the families (especially the Mageran and Ambühl) decided to return to the old faith.[5]

In the Middle Ages, the local economy was based on the transport of goods, alpine herding, farming andviticulture.The town produced gravel from the banks of the Rhone in the Pfynwald (Pfyn forest), until this was restricted for environmental reasons in the 1970s.Limestonemining commenced in 1928 on the Rhone in Susten but has now been given up. In 2005 there were ten large farms and seven wineries in the municipality. In 1908 the Alusuisse-Werke (nowAlcan Ltd) opened a processing plant in Chippis and Steg which provided jobs for many people from Leuk. The Leuk-Leukerbad-Bahnrailwayline opened in 1915 and converted to bus operation in 1967. In 2005, the train station in Susten was rebuilt with a new railway bridge over the Rhone and a new rail tunnel towards Salgesch. Traditionally Leuk was the central administrative center of the region. At the beginning of the 21st century, it is also the educational, legal and services center in part due to thesatellite earth stationof International Teleport Switzerland AG. The large antennas of the earth station have made Leuk into a major intercontinental telecommunications center.[5]Near the earth station are the antennas of the Swiss military Onyx system forelectronic intelligence gathering.

In 1999, the Leuk Castle Foundation was established to restore and maintain the Bishop's Castle in Leuk. As part of the restoration, one of the medieval towers was topped with a glass cupola by the architectMario Botta.[5]

Geography

[edit]
Bridge over the Dala gorge

Leuk has an area, as of 2011,of 44.1 square kilometers (17.0 sq mi). Of this area, 19.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 48.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 4.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and 26.8% is unproductive land.[6]

The municipality is the capital of the Leuk district. It is located above the right side of theRhone,between the Dala gorge and the Feschelbach river. The town is surrounded byvineyards.It consists of the village of Leuk-Stadt, the castle, the village of Susten on the left bank of the Rhone and thehamletsof Brianen, Feithieren, Gampinen and Pfyn.

The municipalities of Erschmatt and Leuk are considering a merger on at a date in the future into the new municipality with an, as of 2011,undetermined name.[7]

Coat of arms

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Theblazonof the municipalcoat of armsisGules a Griffin rampant coward langued and armed Argent holding in front paws a sword of the last.[8]

Demographics

[edit]
La Souste/Susten
Houses in Leuk

Leuk has a population (as of December 2020) of 3,991.[9]As of 2008,11.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals.[10]Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of 4.7%. It has changed at a rate of 3.3% due to migration and at a rate of 1.1% due to births and deaths.[6]

Most of the population (as of 2000) speaksGerman(3,118 or 92.8%) as their first language,Albanianis the second most common (79 or 2.4%) andFrenchis the third (52 or 1.5%). There are 15 people who speakItalianand 2 people who speakRomansh.[11]

As of 2008,the gender distribution of the population was 49.6% male and 50.4% female. The population was made up of 1,526 Swiss men (43.8% of the population) and 203 (5.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,573 Swiss women (45.1%) and 184 (5.3%) non-Swiss women.[12]Of the population in the municipality 1,617 or about 48.1% were born in Leuk and lived there in 2000. There were 985 or 29.3% who were born in the same canton, while 319 or 9.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 295 or 8.8% were born outside of Switzerland.[11]

The age distribution of the population (as of 2000) is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 24% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.2%.[6]

As of 2000,there were 1,401 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,602 married individuals, 221 widows or widowers and 137 individuals who are divorced.[11]

As of 2000,there were 1,209 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household.[6]There were 330 households that consist of only one person and 124 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 1,264 households that answered this question, 26.1% were households made up of just one person and there were 14 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 328 married couples without children, 455 married couples with children. There were 64 single parents with a child or children. There were 18 households that were made up of unrelated people and 55 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.[11]

In 2000there were 534 single family homes (or 62.1% of the total) out of a total of 860 inhabited buildings. There were 217 multi-family buildings (25.2%), along with 59 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (6.9%) and 50 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (5.8%).[13]

In 2000,a total of 1,126 apartments (79.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 241 apartments (17.0%) were seasonally occupied and 50 apartments (3.5%) were empty.[13]As of 2009,the construction rate of new housing units was 2.3 new units per 1000 residents.[6]The vacancy rate for the municipality, in 2010,was 0.84%.[6]

The historical population is given in the following chart:[5][14]

Heritage sites of national significance

[edit]

The Dalaturm, the Church of St. Stephan, theRathaus(Town council house), theRingackerChapel ofMariä Empfängniswith theHermitageandZen-Ruffinen Castleare listed as Swissheritage site of national significance.The entire small town of Leuk and village of Erschmatt are part of theInventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.[15]

Politics

[edit]

In the2007 federal electionthe most popular party was theCVPwhich received 71.78% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were theSP(13.34%), theSVP(11.2%) and theFDP(1.76%). In the federal election, a total of 1,856 votes were cast, and thevoter turnoutwas 75.9%.[16]

In the 2009Conseil d'État/Staatsratelection a total of 1,684 votes were cast, of which 117 or about 6.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 70.5%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%.[17]In the 2007Swiss Council of States electiona total of 1,849 votes were cast, of which 73 or about 3.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 76.4%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.[18]

Economy

[edit]

As of 2010,Leuk had an unemployment rate of 2.2%. As of 2008,there were 148 people employed in theprimary economic sectorand about 56 businesses involved in this sector. 218 people were employed in thesecondary sectorand there were 44 businesses in this sector. 850 people were employed in thetertiary sector,with 133 businesses in this sector.[6]There were 1,595 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.8% of the workforce.

In 2008the total number offull-time equivalentjobs was 952. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 84, of which 71 were in agriculture and 13 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 205 of which 46 or (22.4%) were in manufacturing and 138 (67.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 663. In the tertiary sector; 91 or 13.7% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 48 or 7.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 95 or 14.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 18 or 2.7% were in the information industry, 28 or 4.2% were the insurance or financial industry, 42 or 6.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 83 or 12.5% were in education and 204 or 30.8% were in health care.[19]

In 2000,there were 398 workers who commuted into the municipality and 877 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.2 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[20]Of the working population, 20.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 55.8% used a private car.[6]

Religion

[edit]
St. Stephan's Church

From the 2000 census,2,845 or 84.6% wereRoman Catholic,while 159 or 4.7% belonged to theSwiss Reformed Church.Of the rest of the population, there were 21members of an Orthodox church(or about 0.62% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.06% of the population) who belonged to theChristian Catholic Church,and there were 29 individuals (or about 0.86% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 141 (or about 4.20% of the population) who wereIslamic.There was 1 person who wasHinduand 4 individuals who belonged to another church. 48 (or about 1.43% of the population) belonged to no church, areagnosticoratheist,and 124 individuals (or about 3.69% of the population) did not answer the question.[11]

Education

[edit]
Secondary school in Leuk

In Leuk about 1,149 or (34.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatoryupper secondary education,and 215 or (6.4%) have completed additional higher education (eitheruniversityor aFachhochschule). Of the 215 who completed tertiary schooling, 73.5% were Swiss men, 21.4% were Swiss women, 3.7% were non-Swiss men.[11]

During the 2010–2011 school year there were a total of 438 students in the Leuk school system. Theeducation systemin the Canton of Valais allows young children to attend one year of non-obligatoryKindergarten.[21]During that school year, there 4 kindergarten classes (KG1 or KG2) and 63 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years ofprimary school.In Leuk there were a total of 13 classes and 258 students in the primary school. Thesecondary schoolprogram consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling (orientation classes), followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. There were 180 lower secondary students who attended school in Leuk.[22]All the upper secondary students attended school in another municipality.

As of 2000,there were 128 students in Leuk who came from another municipality, while 124 residents attended schools outside the municipality.[20]

Notable people

[edit]
  • Franz Xaver, Baron von Werra(1914 in Leuk – 1941), a German World War II fighter pilot and flying ace who was shot down over Britain, captured and escaped back to Germany
  • Rabea Grand(born 1984 in Leuk), a retired alpine skier who rose to be the Swiss national champion at the giant slalom in 2009

References

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  1. ^ab"Arealstatistik Standard - Gemeinden nach 4 Hauptbereichen".Federal Statistical Office.Retrieved13 January2019.
  2. ^"Ständige Wohnbevölkerung nach Staatsangehörigkeitskategorie Geschlecht und Gemeinde; Provisorische Jahresergebnisse; 2018".Federal Statistical Office. 9 April 2019.Retrieved11 April2019.
  3. ^Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz(in German)accessed 9 February 2013
  4. ^Swiss Federal Department of Defense,Deux nouvelles antennes sur le site du DDPS de Loèche.24 October 2005 Press release(in French)
  5. ^abcdefghiLeukinGerman,FrenchandItalianin the onlineHistorical Dictionary of Switzerland.
  6. ^abcdefghSwiss Federal Statistical OfficeArchived2016-01-05 at theWayback Machineaccessed 09-September-2011
  7. ^Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweizpublished by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office(in German)accessed 17 February 2011
  8. ^Flags of the World.comaccessed 09-September-2011
  9. ^"Ständige und nichtständige Wohnbevölkerung nach institutionellen Gliederungen, Geburtsort und Staatsangehörigkeit".bfs.admin.ch(in German). Swiss Federal Statistical Office - STAT-TAB. 31 December 2020.Retrieved21 September2021.
  10. ^Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008Archived2010-06-28 at theWayback Machine(in German)accessed 19 June 2010
  11. ^abcdefSTAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000Archived2013-08-09 at theWayback Machine(in German)accessed 2 February 2011
  12. ^Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls(in German and French)accessed 24 August 2011
  13. ^abSwiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und WohnungenArchived2014-09-07 at theWayback Machine(in German)accessed 28 January 2011
  14. ^Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000Archived2014-09-30 at theWayback Machine(in German)accessed 29 January 2011
  15. ^"Kantonsliste A-Objekte:GR".KGS Inventar(in German). Federal Office of Civil Protection. 2009.Retrieved12 November2020.
  16. ^Swiss Federal Statistical Office,Nationalratswahlen 2007: Stärke der Parteien und Wahlbeteiligung, nach Gemeinden/Bezirk/CantonArchived2015-05-14 at theWayback Machine(in German)accessed 28 May 2010
  17. ^Staatsratswahlen vom 1. März 2009(in German)accessed 24 August 2011
  18. ^Ständeratswahl 2007(in German)accessed 24 August 2011
  19. ^Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3Archived2014-12-25 at theWayback Machine(in German)accessed 28 January 2011
  20. ^abSwiss Federal Statistical Office - StatwebArchived2012-08-04 atarchive.today(in German)accessed 24 June 2010
  21. ^EDK/CDIP/IDES (2010).Kantonale Schulstrukturen in der Schweiz und im Fürstentum Liechtenstein / Structures Scolaires Cantonales en Suisse et Dans la Principauté du Liechtenstein(PDF)(Report).Retrieved24 June2010.
  22. ^Obligatorische Schulzeit(in German)accessed 24 August 2011
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