Bonfol
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Bonfol () is a former
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...
in the district of
Porrentruy Porrentruy (; ; ) is a Swiss municipality and seat of the district of the same name located in the canton of Jura. Porrentruy is home to National League team, HC Ajoie. History The first trace of human presence in Porrentruy is a Mesolit ...
in the
canton Canton may refer to: Administrative divisions * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and entertainment * Canton (band), an It ...
of Jura in
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 ...
. It was also home to one of the most hazardous waste landfills in all of Switzerland.


History

Bonfol is first mentioned in 1136 as ''Bunfol''. The municipality was formerly known by its German name ''Pumpfel'', however, that name is no longer used. According to tradition, the village was founded after the
Burgundian Wars The Burgundian Wars (1474–1477) were a conflict between the Burgundian State and the Old Swiss Confederacy and its allies. Open war broke out in 1474, and the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was defeated three times on the battlefield in th ...
for Stephan of Hagenbach, a vassal of
Charles the Bold Charles Martin (10 November 1433 – 5 January 1477), called the Bold, was the last duke of Burgundy from the House of Valois-Burgundy, ruling from 1467 to 1477. He was the only surviving legitimate son of Philip the Good and his third wife, ...
, to replace his destroyed villages of Bonfol-le-Vieux, Trunchéré and Vareroille. During
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
from 1914 until 1918, the Western Front between the
Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...
and
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
began at the village of Le Largin in Bonfol. On 1 January 2024, Bonfol merged with
Beurnevésin Beurnevésin () is a former municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Porrentruy (district), Porrentruy in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Jura (canton), Jura in Switzerland. History Beurnevésin is first mentioned in ...
to form the new municipality of Basse-Vendline.


Geography

Bonfol has an area of . Of this area, or 47.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 43.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.5% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.5% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.3%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 35.4% is used for growing crops and 11.6% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes. The municipality is located in the Porrentruy district, in the north-east corner of the
Ajoie The Ajoie (; , Frainc-Comtou: ''Aidjoue'') is an historic region roughly coinciding with Porrentruy District in the canton of Jura in northwestern Switzerland. It is a part of the Jura plain, composed of six geographic areas: * the Vendline ( ...
region on the border with
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. The nature preserve
Etangs de Bonfol Etangs de Bonfol are a series of ponds at Bonfol in the Canton of Jura, Switzerland. The main ponds are named "étang du Milieu" and "Neuf-Etang". They are separated by a dam. Since 1962, the étangs de Bonfol are a nature preserve. They are list ...
is located close to the village.


Bonfol waste dump

Beginning in 1961 many of the largest pharmaceutical and chemical companies in and around
Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...
began burying chemical waste in a former
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
mine outside the village. Eight of the largest, including
BASF BASF SE (), an initialism of its original name , is a European Multinational corporation, multinational company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen, Ge ...
,
Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical company, pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland. Novartis is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and was the eighth largest by re ...
,
Roche F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche (), is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational corporation, multinational holding healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, ...
and
Syngenta Syngenta Global AG is a global agricultural technology company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. It primarily covers crop protection and seeds for farmers. Syngenta is part of the Syngenta Group, entirely owned by Sinochem, a Chinese state ...
, formed ''Basler Chemischen Industrie'' (BCI) to administer the site. The Bonfol dump remained in operation until 1976 and over those fifteen years about of chemicals were dumped. After it was closed BCI believed the clay would hold the waste in place. The dump was buried and the of land that it covered was replanted. However, in 1981 the first leaks were detected from the dump and from 1986 through 1995 BCI installed a drainage system and built a runoff treatment plant. After protests by
Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of Environmental movement, environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its biod ...
and the passage of Switzerland’s Federal Ordinance on the Contaminated Sites in 1998, on 17 October 2000 BCI signed an agreement with the Canton to fully excavate and clean the entire dump. In 2007 construction began on an excavation hall that covered the entire site. Using a large overhead crane and digging bucket up to of contaminated earth was excavated per day. It was then loaded on sealed rail cars and taken to incinerators in Germany where it was burned at temperatures up to and turned into chemically stable ash. In July 2010 some of the chemicals in the dump exploded during excavation. One machinist suffered minor injuries and the project paused for several months to evaluate the hazard. At the end of August 2016 the last of the contaminated soil was removed, bringing the total removed and incinerated to . The project cost BCI a total of .


Coat of arms

The
blazon 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 an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...
of the municipal
coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...
is ''Argent, a Bend Azure and in chief sinister a Mullet of five of the same.''


Demographics

Bonfol has a population () of . , 7.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
accessed 19 June 2010
Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of -6%. Migration accounted for 0.8%, while births and deaths accounted for -6.6%.
accessed 29-December-2011
Most of the population () speaks
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
(575 or 84.7%) as their first language,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
is the second most common (83 or 12.2%) and
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
is the third (11 or 1.6%). There are 4 people who speak
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
. , the population was 47.5% male and 52.5% female. The population was made up of 293 Swiss men (42.8% of the population) and 32 (4.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 338 Swiss women (49.4%) and 21 (3.1%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 283 or about 41.7% were born in Bonfol and lived there in 2000. There were 149 or 21.9% who were born in the same canton, while 110 or 16.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 105 or 15.5% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 55.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 24.9%. , there were 217 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 353 married individuals, 72 widows or widowers and 37 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 303 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household. There were 103 households that consist of only one person and 16 households with five or more people. , a total of 296 apartments (76.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 46 apartments (11.9%) were seasonally occupied and 46 apartments (11.9%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011
The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 8.56%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1020 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1400 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:300 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:60 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1770 from:start till:805 text:"805" bar:1850 from:start till:1263 text:"1,263" bar:1860 from:start till:1227 text:"1,227" bar:1870 from:start till:1222 text:"1,222" bar:1880 from:start till:1122 text:"1,122" bar:1888 from:start till:1261 text:"1,261" bar:1900 from:start till:1340 text:"1,340" bar:1910 from:start till:1303 text:"1,303" bar:1920 from:start till:1173 text:"1,173" bar:1930 from:start till:1020 text:"1,020" bar:1941 from:start till:1023 text:"1,023" bar:1950 from:start till:1017 text:"1,017" bar:1960 from:start till:992 text:"992" bar:1970 from:start till:888 text:"888" bar:1980 from:start till:833 text:"833" bar:1990 from:start till:793 text:"793" bar:2000 from:start till:679 text:"679"


Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 26.89% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (25.21%), the SVP (23.74%) and the CVP (21.43%). In the federal election, a total of 250 votes were cast, and the
voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...
was 43.6%.


Economy

, Bonfol had an unemployment rate of 6.1%. , there were 41 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 17 businesses involved in this sector. 145 people were employed in the
secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in constructi ...
and there were 11 businesses in this sector. 73 people were 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 18 businesses in this sector. There were 305 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.6% of the workforce. the total number of
full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often use ...
jobs was 221. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 32, of which 31 were in agriculture and 1 was in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 135 of which 131 or (97.0%) were in manufacturing and 4 (3.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 54. In the tertiary sector; 12 or 22.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 5 or 9.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 4 or 7.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 3 or 5.6% were in education and 3 or 5.6% were in health care. , there were 134 workers who commuted into the municipality and 150 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 19.4% of the workforce coming into Bonfol are coming from outside Switzerland.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010
Of the working population, 6.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 55.1% used a private car.


Religion

From the , 447 or 65.8% were
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
, while 133 or 19.6% belonged to the
Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 2 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.29% of the population), there were 3 individuals (or about 0.44% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 44 individuals (or about 6.48% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was
Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
ic. There was 1 person who was
Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
and 2 individuals who were
Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
. 31 (or about 4.57% of the population) belonged to no church, are
agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...
or
atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, and 35 individuals (or about 5.15% of the population) did not answer the question.


Education

In Bonfol about 180 or (26.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory
upper secondary education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...
, and 36 or (5.3%) have completed additional higher education (either
university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
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 ...
''). Of the 36 who completed tertiary schooling, 58.3% were Swiss men, 38.9% were Swiss women. The Canton of Jura school system provides two year of non-obligatory
Kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...
, followed by six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend a three or four year optional upper Secondary school followed by some form of Tertiary school or they may enter an
apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...
. During the 2009-10 school year, there were a total of 34 students attending 3 classes in Bonfol. There were no kindergarten classes in the municipality.Effectifs de l'école enfantine 2009-2010
accessed 19 December 2011
The municipality had 2.5 primary classes and 34 students.
accessed 19 December 2011
There are only nine Secondary schools in the canton, so all the students from Bonfol attend their secondary school in another municipality. , there were 45 students from Bonfol who attended schools outside the municipality.


Transportation

Bonfol is located at the northern end of the Porrentruy–Bonfol railway line and has regular service at the Bonfol railway station.


References

{{Authority control Former municipalities of the canton of Jura