Fiesch


Fiesch is a municipality in the district of Goms in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Nearby Fiescheralp is administered by Fiesch and is accessible by the Eggishorn lift.
It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site for its view of the Jungfrau-Aletsch Protected Area.

History

Fiesch is first mentioned in 1203 as "Vios". In 1438 it is recorded as "Viesch", and has been known as Fiesch since 1905.
The Fiesch derailment occurred in 2010.

Geography

Fiesch has an area,, of. Of this area, 32.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 40.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 6.4% is settled and 20.4% is unproductive land.
The municipality is located in a small valley and on the slopes above both sides of the Weisswasser.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, a fess wavy Argent in base Coupeaux of the same.

Demographics

Fiesch has a population of. , 17.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has changed at a rate of -4.5%. It has changed at a rate of -2% due to migration and at a rate of -2% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population speaks German as their first language, Serbo-Croatian is the second most common and Albanian is the third. There are 7 people who speak French, 1 person who speaks Italian.
, the gender distribution of the population was 50.9% male and 49.1% female. The population was made up of 403 Swiss men and 92 non-Swiss men. There were 382 Swiss women and 95 non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 433 or about 43.5% were born in Fiesch and lived there in 2000. There were 272 or 27.3% who were born in the same canton, while 103 or 10.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 172 or 17.3% were born outside of Switzerland.
The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers make up 24.1% of the population, while adults make up 60% and seniors make up 15.9%.
, there were 401 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 514 married individuals, 57 widows or widowers and 24 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 372 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. There were 97 households that consist of only one person and 35 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 379 households that answered this question, 25.6% were households made up of just one person and there were 2 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 110 married couples without children, 145 married couples with children There were 11 single parents with a child or children. There were 7 households that were made up of unrelated people and 7 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 266 single family homes out of a total of 485 inhabited buildings. There were 151 multi-family buildings, along with 29 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing and 39 other use buildings that also had some housing.
, a total of 351 apartments were permanently occupied, while 427 apartments were seasonally occupied and 62 apartments were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 4.1 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality,, was 1.02%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:

Colors=
id:lightgrey value:gray
id:darkgrey value:gray
ImageSize = width:1020 height:210
PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100
AlignBars = justify
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:1000
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0
PlotData=
color:yellowgreen width:40 mark: align:center
bar:1809 from:start till:415 text:"415"
bar:1850 from:start till:245 text:"245"
bar:1860 from:start till:327 text:"327"
bar:1870 from:start till:337 text:"337"
bar:1880 from:start till:360 text:"360"
bar:1888 from:start till:393 text:"393"
bar:1900 from:start till:467 text:"467"
bar:1910 from:start till:431 text:"431"
bar:1920 from:start till:403 text:"403"
bar:1930 from:start till:428 text:"428"
bar:1941 from:start till:511 text:"511"
bar:1950 from:start till:517 text:"517"
bar:1960 from:start till:567 text:"567"
bar:1970 from:start till:631 text:"631"
bar:1980 from:start till:710 text:"710"
bar:1990 from:start till:947 text:"947"
bar:2000 from:start till:996 text:"996"

Twin Town

Fiesch is twinned with the town of Neufra, Germany.

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 60.07% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP, the SP and the FDP. In the federal election, a total of 356 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 50.6%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat election a total of 352 votes were cast, of which 18 or about 5.1% were invalid. The voter participation was 51.4%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 356 votes were cast, of which 7 or about 2.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 51.4%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

The main source of income of the village is tourism, especially hiking, mountain biking, paragliding, snowboarding and skiing, along with many other sports for which the village is an ideal starting point. Above Fiesch, in the Fiescheralp, there is a ski resort and a launch point for hang glider and paraglider pilots.
, Fiesch had an unemployment rate of 2.4%. , there were 10 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 7 businesses involved in this sector. 57 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 14 businesses in this sector. 551 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 78 businesses in this sector. There were 532 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.9% of the workforce.
the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 511. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 5, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 54 of which 23 or were in manufacturing and 31 were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 452. In the tertiary sector; 84 or 18.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 55 or 12.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 119 or 26.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 18 or 4.0% were the insurance or financial industry, 9 or 2.0% were technical professionals or scientists, 4 or 0.9% were in education and 80 or 17.7% were in health care.
, there were 285 workers who commuted into the municipality and 183 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.6 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. Of the working population, 10.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 39.1% used a private car.

Religion

From the, 804 or 80.7% were Roman Catholic, while 60 or 6.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 80 members of an Orthodox church, and there was 1 individual who belongs to another Christian church. There were 14 who were Islamic. 24 belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 13 individuals did not answer the question.

Education

In Fiesch about 370 or of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 90 or have completed additional higher education. Of the 90 who completed tertiary schooling, 67.8% were Swiss men, 15.6% were Swiss women, 8.9% were non-Swiss men and 7.8% were non-Swiss women.
During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 179 students in the Fiesch school system. The education system in the Canton of Valais allows young children to attend one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten. During that school year, there 2 kindergarten classes and 31 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school. In Fiesch there were a total of 6 classes and 98 students in the primary school. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling, followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. There were 81 lower secondary students who attended school in Fiesch. All the upper secondary students attended school in another municipality.
, there were 122 students in Fiesch who came from another municipality, while 31 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Fiesch is home to the Regionalbibliothek Goms in Fiesch library. The library has 3,843 books or other media, and loaned out 3,885 items in the same year. It was open a total of 150 days with average of 6 hours per week during that year.

Transport connections

Fiesch is served by the following transport connections:
From the village two cable cars bring you to Fiescheralp
The main lifts are:
Nametypeelevation
elevation
slope lengthcapacity
construction year
Fiesch- -alp 1+2cable car1074222729408001973
Fiesch- -alp 3+4cable car1071222129372701966
Fiescheralp-Eggishorncable car2225287918364951968
Heimatchairlift18582301114414002000
Taleggachairlift22082727178222002010
Fleschchairlift22082630135724001993
Trainer 1surface lift2206226421812001987
Trainer 2surface lift2206226421812001987
Laxeralp 1surface lift2135217939611001981
Laxeralp 2surface lift2179228039412141981