Gletterens () is a

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 Broye, in the

canton of Fribourg The canton of Fribourg, also canton of Freiburg, is located in western Switzerland. The canton is bilingual, with French spoken by more than two thirds of the citizens and German by a little more than a quarter. Both are official languages in th ...

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 is home to the Les Grèves prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements that are part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

History

Gletterens is first mentioned in 1239 as ''Lieterins''.

Geography

Gletterens has an area, , of . Of this area, or 51.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 16.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 20.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 12.3% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data . Retrieved 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 12.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.7%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 5.1%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 41.8% is used for growing crops and 9.2% is pastures. The municipality is located Broyebez., abseits der grossen Verkehrsachsen am Neuenburgersee gelegen.. It consists of the village of Gletterens and the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

of Broyebez., abseits der grossen Verkehrsachsen am Neuenburgersee gelegen..

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 ''Barry of six Or and Gules and on a Chief Argent fimbriated wavy Azure a Rose Gules barbed and seeded proper in sinister.''

Demographics

Gletterens has a population () of . , 7.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Superweb database – Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
. Retrieved 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 50.7%. Migration accounted for 52.7%, while births and deaths accounted for 5.4%.
. Retrieved 8 November 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), ...

(385 or 71.8%) 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 (139 or 25.9%) and

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 ...

is the third (5 or 0.9%). , the population was 48.3% male and 51.7% female. The population was made up of 332 Swiss men (44.1% of the population) and 31 (4.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 347 Swiss women (46.1%) and 42 (5.6%) non-Swiss women.Canton of Fribourg Statistics
. Retrieved 3 November 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 158 or about 29.5% were born in Gletterens and lived there in 2000. There were 94 or 17.5% who were born in the same canton, while 215 or 40.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 58 or 10.8% were born outside of Switzerland. The age distribution, , in Gletterens is; 63 children or 11.8% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 61 teenagers or 11.4% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 45 people or 8.4% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 78 people or 14.6% are between 30 and 39, 93 people or 17.4% are between 40 and 49, and 70 people or 13.1% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 67 people or 12.5% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 32 people or 6.0% are between 70 and 79, there are 22 people or 4.1% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 5 people or 0.9% who are 90 and older. , there were 183 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 293 married individuals, 34 widows or widowers and 26 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000
. Retrieved 2 February 2011 , there were 171 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 35 households that consist of only one person and 10 households with five or more people. , a total of 159 apartments (53.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 124 apartments (41.3%) were seasonally occupied and 17 apartments (5.7%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB – Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 – Gebäude und Wohnungen
. Retrieved 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 13.3 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.27%. 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:540 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:100 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:20 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1811 from:start till:160 text:"160" bar:1850 from:start till:251 text:"251" bar:1860 from:start till:257 text:"257" bar:1870 from:start till:268 text:"268" bar:1880 from:start till:261 text:"261" bar:1888 from:start till:288 text:"288" bar:1900 from:start till:235 text:"235" bar:1910 from:start till:245 text:"245" bar:1920 from:start till:251 text:"251" bar:1930 from:start till:265 text:"265" bar:1941 from:start till:269 text:"269" bar:1950 from:start till:251 text:"251" bar:1960 from:start till:211 text:"211" bar:1970 from:start till:176 text:"176" bar:1980 from:start till:203 text:"203" bar:1990 from:start till:328 text:"328" bar:2000 from:start till:536 text:"536"

World Heritage Site

It is home to the Les Grèves prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements that are part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps UNESCO

. The Les Grèves site is located about from the present shoreline. Some of the timbers have been dendrochronologically dated to the 33rd century and the first half of the 32nd century BC. The site was well known locally before it was officially discovered by H. Schwab in the 1960s. The upper layers are from a

Horgen culture The Horgen culture is one of several archaeological cultures belonging to the Neolithic period of Switzerland. The Horgen culture may derive from the Pfyn culture and early Horgen pottery is similar to the earlier Cortaillod culture pottery of ...

settlement and the lower layers might be from either a Horgan or a

Cortaillod culture The Cortaillod culture is one of several archaeologically defined cultures belonging to the Neolithic period of Switzerland. The ''Cortaillod'' Culture in the west of the region is contemporary with the Pfyn Culture in the east and dates from b ...

settlement.

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 27.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (27.4%), the CVP (14.4%) and the FDP (10.8%).Canton of Fribourg National Council Election of 23 October 2011 Statistics
. Retrieved 3 November 2011 The SPS improved their position in Gletterens rising to first, from second in 2007 (with 33.2%) The SVP moved from first in 2007 (with 33.4%) to second in 2011, the CVP retained about the same popularity (12.7% in 2007) and the FDP retained about the same popularity (9.4% in 2007). A total of 289 votes were cast in this election, of which 3 or 1.0% were invalid.

Economy

, Gletterens had an unemployment rate of 3.5%. , there were 17 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 7 businesses involved in this sector. 28 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 7 businesses in this sector. 99 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 256 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 45.3% 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 103. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 11, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 24 of which 6 or (25.0%) were in manufacturing and 18 (75.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 68. In the tertiary sector; 9 or 13.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 2 or 2.9% were in the movement and storage of goods, 3 or 4.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 4 or 5.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 5 or 7.4% were in education and 35 or 51.5% were in health care. , there were 57 workers who commuted into the municipality and 182 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.2 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb
. Retrieved 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 7% used public transportation to get to work, and 72.3% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 264 or 49.3% 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 24.8% 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 4 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.75% of the population), there were 4 individuals (or about 0.75% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 8 individuals (or about 1.49% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 3 (or about 0.56% of the population) who were

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 were 1 individual who belonged to another church. 97 (or about 18.10% 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 ...

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 26 individuals (or about 4.85% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Gletterens about 185 or (34.5%) 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 62 or (11.6%) 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 62 who completed tertiary schooling, 59.7% were Swiss men, 35.5% were Swiss women. The Canton of Fribourg school system provides one 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. The upper Secondary school is divided into gymnasium (university preparatory) and vocational programs. After they finish the upper Secondary program, students may choose to attend a Tertiary school or continue their

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 ...

.Chart of the education system in Canton Fribourg
During the 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 43 students attending 3 classes in Gletterens. A total of 95 students from the municipality attended any school, either in the municipality or outside of it. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 11 students in the municipality. The municipality had 2 primary classes and 32 students. During the same year, there were no lower secondary classes in the municipality, but 29 students attended lower secondary school in a neighboring municipality. There were no upper Secondary classes or vocational classes, but there were 7 upper Secondary vocational students who attended classes in another municipality. The municipality had no non-university Tertiary classes, but there were 2 non-university Tertiary students and 2 specialized Tertiary students who attended classes in another municipality. , there were 21 students in Gletterens who came from another municipality, while 52 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

Official website
* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Fribourg