Altreu is a village in the municipality of

Selzach Selzach is a municipality in the district of Lebern in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. History Selzach is first mentioned in 1181 as ''Selsacho''. Geography Selzach has an area, , of . Of this area, or 50.3% is used for agricultu ...

Canton of Solothurn The canton of Solothurn or canton of Soleure (german: Kanton Solothurn rm, Chantun Soloturn french: Canton de Soleure; it, Canton Soletta) is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the northwest of Switzerland. The capital is Solothurn. Hi ...

Lebern District Lebern District is one of the ten districts of the canton of Solothurn, Switzerland, situated to the west of the canton. Together with the city of Solothurn, it forms the ''Amtei'' (electoral district) of Solothurn-Lebern. It has a population of ...

, Switzerland.

Geography

Altreu lies 429 m above sea level, 7 km west-southwest of the canton's capital

Solothurn , neighboring_municipalities = Bellach, Biberist, Feldbrunnen-Sankt Niklaus, Langendorf, Rüttenen, Zuchwil , twintowns = Heilbronn (Germany), Kraków (Poland), Le Landeron (Switzerland) Solothurn ( , ; french: Soleure ; it, Soletta ; ...

. The village stands along the north bank of the

Aare The Aare () or Aar () is a tributary of the High Rhine and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to its junction with the Rhine comprises about , during which distance it desce ...

and at the meeting point of the two streams Haagbach and Selzacherbach, shortly before they flow into the Aare. The village is located in a nearly 3 km-wide lowland of the Aare in the west of Solothurn's part of the

Swiss Plateau The Swiss Plateau or Central Plateau (german: Schweizer Mittelland; french: plateau suisse; it, altopiano svizzero) is one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland, lying between the Jura Mountains and the Swiss Alps. It covers about 30% of ...

Recreation

Altreu is a stop for hikers and bicyclists along the meandering course of the Aare. Altreu is known internationally for its

white stork The white stork (''Ciconia ciconia'') is a large bird in the stork family, Ciconiidae. Its plumage is mainly white, with black on the bird's wings. Adults have long red legs and long pointed red beaks, and measure on average from beak tip to en ...

colony, which was established by conservationist Max Blösch in 1948; the 15 km² 'Witi' reserve serves as a hunting ground and resting place for the storks in the marshlands of the Aare. In 2008, Altreu was recognized as a European stork village by the EuroNatur foundation.

Transportation

The village lies away from major thoroughfares but is easy to reach from nearby Selzach. Altreu is connected by bus to

Grenchen Grenchen (french: Granges) is a municipality in the district of Lebern in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located at the foot of the Jura mountains between Solothurn and Biel/Bienne, approximately north of Bern. With over 16,000 ...

's train station. The Selzach train station on the Solothurn-

Biel Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; , ) is a town and a municipality in the Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Biel/Bienne lies on the language boundary between the French-speaking and German-spea ...

line is approximately 1 km from the village center. The

Leuzigen Leuzigen is a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. The village is situated between the cities Biel/Bienne and Solothurn and borders on the river Aare. History Leuzigen is first mentioned ...

-Altreu ferry carries passengers across the Aare, and Altreu is also a stop for the passenger ship between Biel and Solothurn.

History

A Roman fort once stood in the area of Altreu, along with a bridge which connected the

Roman roads Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

north of the Aare with the main road to the south between

Aventicum Aventicum was the largest town and capital of Roman Switzerland (Helvetia or Civitas Helvetiorum). Its remains are beside the modern town of Avenches. The city was probably created ''ex nihilo'' in the early 1st century AD, as the capital of t ...

and Salodurum (Solothurn). The first recorded mention of the town appeared in 1280 as ''Altrua''; from 1330 the name appears as ''Altrüwe''. At around 1260, the Neuenburg-Strassberg noble family established the medieval town of Altreu, which was fortified with walls, trenches, and a castle; a wooden bridge over the Aare was also constructed at that time. The region north of the Aare which separated from the Strassberg ''Herrschaft'' in 1309 was named after Altreu; this area included the municipalities of Selzach and Bettlach, as well as the western part of Lommiswil. In 1340 Altreu was purchased by the Neuenburg-Nidau family. The invading

Gugler The Guglers (also Güglers) were a body of mostly English and French knights who as mercenaries invaded Alsace and the Swiss plateau under the leadership of Enguerrand VII de Coucy during the Gugler War of 1375. Origin of the term The term Gu ...

mercenary army destroyed the town and bridge in 1375, and the town was not rebuilt afterwards because erosion and changes in the Aare's flow were threatening the town more and more. Solothurner burgher Rudolf Sefrid von Erlach purchased the area in 1377 and gave it to the city of Solothurn in 1389, where it was merged into the Lebern district. A hamlet grew in the location of the former town which, though part of the Selzach municipality, possessed a degree of autonomy until 1831 with its own Ammann (bailiff),

common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person who has ...

, and Weibel (a type of Swiss official with various administrative and ceremonial duties).

Gallery

File:Ch info Stoerche Altreu solothurn.jpg, Storks at Altreu File:Ch-info altreu.JPG, Kapelle Mariahilf (built 1819, renovated 1973) File:Ch info Altreu 018.jpg, ''Siesta'' at Altreu dock File:Restaurant zum grünen Affen.jpg, Restaurant zum grünen Affen File:Kulturgut selzach-4.jpg, Ettershof File:Kulturgut selzach-1.jpg, Stork nests on farmhouse

References

{{authority control Villages in Switzerland