Betschwanden is a village and former municipality in the municipality of

Glarus Süd Glarus Süd is a municipality in the Switzerland, Swiss canton of Glarus. It comprises the upper Linth valley, and the entire Sernf valley, and includes the villages of Betschwanden, Braunwald, Glarus, Braunwald, Diesbach, Glarus, Diesbach, Elm, Sw ...

and

canton of Glarus The canton of Glarus ( ; ; ; ) is a cantons of Switzerland, canton in east-central Switzerland. The capital is Glarus. The population speaks a variety of Alemannic German. The majority of the population (81%) identifies as Christianity in Switzer ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

History

Betschwanden is first recorded in 1240 in the phrase ''in Beswando''. Until 1395, Betschwanden was obliged to pay

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Modern tithes are normally voluntary and paid in money, cash, cheques or v ...

s and taxes to Säckingen Abbey. At the same time it was part of the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Glarus. The village church was built in the Romanesque style in the 14th century. It was rebuilt several times and flood control walls were added in 1779-80. The

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

and

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

elements were added in 1915 and restored in 1975-77. The exterior of the church was rebuilt in 2001. When the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

arrived in Glarus, Betschwanden adopted the new faith. In 1528 it joined a Reformed parish with Braunwald, Hätzingen, Diesbach and Rüti. In 1942 Braunwald separated to form an independent parish. Until the 19th century, alpine farming and herding was the primary source of income. A mill was built on the Diesbach river in 1778. Today it is a guest house for the

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

. A parish school opened in 1727. A secondary school opened in 1844. A spinning mill opened in 1843 and a warehouse was added in 1910; it is now a textile chemical factory. A station of the Schweizerische Nordostbahn (Swiss North-East Railway) opened in the village in 1879. On 1 January 2011, the municipality of Betschwanden was merged into the new municipality of

Geography

Betschwanden is located in the valley of the

Linth The Linth (pronounced "lint") is a Switzerland, Swiss river that rises near the Linthal, Glarus, village of Linthal in the mountains of the cantons of Switzerland, canton of canton of Glarus, Glarus, and eventually flows into the Obersee (Züri ...

river, with the village situated on the east bank of the river, at an elevation of approximately . The village of Rüti lies to the south and Diesbach to the north. Above the village to the east is the mountain of Kärpf (). Betschwanden has an area, as defined by the former municipal boundaries in 2006, of . Of this area, 36% is used for agricultural purposes, while 29.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (33.1%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

Transport

Betschwanden is located on the Hauptstrasse 17, which runs the length of the canton of Glarus before climbing the Klausen Pass into the

canton of Uri The canton of Uri ( ; ; ; ) is one of the cantons of switzerland, 26 cantons of Switzerland and a founding member of the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is located in Central Switzerland. The canton's territory covers the valley of the Reuss ...

, as well as on the Weesen to Linthal railway line that parallels the main road and the Linth river through Glarus. The high alpine Klausen Pass is normally only open to traffic between June and September, and for the rest of the year the road and railway up the valley form the only access to the village. The village is served by Diesbach-Betschwanden railway station, which is served by the hourly Zürich S-Bahn service S25 between Linthal and

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Demographics

Betschwanden has a population, as of 2010 and as defined by the former municipal area, of 182. , 6.8% of the population was made up of foreign nationals.Canton Glarus population growth
accessed 9 September 2009 Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 9.1%. Most of the population () speaks German (93.0%), with Finnish being the only other language listed in the census (0.6%).
accessed 10-Sep-2009 In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 50.7% of the vote. Most of the rest of the votes went to the SPS with 47.9% of the vote. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Betschwanden about 72.7% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University or a ''

Fachhochschule A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...

''). Betschwanden has an unemployment rate of 4.8%. , there were 5 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 2 businesses involved in this sector. No one is employed in the secondary sector and there are no businesses in this sector. 19 people are employed in the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the ...

, with 7 businesses in this sector. The historical population is given in the following table:

References

External links

*
''Betschwanden''
from Glarus Süd municipal web site (in German) * {{authority control Former municipalities of the canton of Glarus Villages in the canton of Glarus