Monible is a
former municipality in the
Jura bernois administrative district in the
canton of
Bern
Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...
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 is located in the French-speaking
Bernese Jura
Bernese Jura (, , German: Berner Jura) is the name for the French-speaking area of the Switzerland, Swiss canton of Bern, and from 2010 one of ten Administrative divisions of Switzerland, administrative divisions of the Cantons of Switzerland, cant ...
(''Jura Bernois''). On 1 January 2015 the former municipalities of
Châtelat, Monible,
Sornetan and
Souboz merged to form the new municipality of
Petit-Val.
[Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz]
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 2 January 2013
History
Monible is first mentioned in 1403 as ''Montnible'', though this comes from document that was written in 1414. In 1537 it was mentioned as ''Monible''.
For much of its history, Monible was part of the ''
Amt'' or
township
A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...
of
Sornetan under the
provost of
Moutier-Grandval Abbey
Moutier-Grandval Abbey was a Benedictine abbey near the villages of Moutier and Grandval in today's Bernese Jura, Canton of Bern in Switzerland. It was founded around 640, when Grandval already existed; Moutier grew up around the abbey.
Histor ...
who was under the
Prince-Bishop of Basel. Most of the village was destroyed by a fire in 1743. After the
1798 French invasion, Monible became part of the French
Département
In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...
of
Mont-Terrible
Mont-Terrible () was a department of the First French Republic, with its seat at Porrentruy.
The Mont Terrible for which the department was named is now known as , a peak of near Courgenay (now in the canton of Jura, Switzerland). The toponym ...
. Three years later, in 1800 it became part of the Département of
Haut-Rhin
Haut-Rhin (); Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; , . is a department in the Grand Est region, France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine; its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less pop ...
. After
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
's defeat and the
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...
, Monible was assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815.
The village's population has been steadily declining since the 19th century. In 1956 the municipal primary school closed and today only a
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 ...
is open.
Geography
Before the merger, Monible had a total area of .
As of 2012, a total of or 48.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 47.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 1.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.9% is unproductive land.
[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
During the same year, housing and buildings made up 0.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.9%. Out of the forested land, 43.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 36.0% is pastures and 11.2% is used for alpine pastures.
Monible is a small
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
located on a hill near the
Sornetan.
On 31 December 2009 District de Moutier, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Arrondissement administratif Jura bernois.
[Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz]
accessed 4 April 2011
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 Pigeon Azure holding in beak a Horse-Shue Gules on a Mount Vert.''
Demographics
Monible had a population (as of 2013) of 36.
[Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 15 January 2015 Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of -14%. Migration accounted for -16.3%, while births and deaths accounted for 2.3%.
Most of the population () speaks
French (31 or 88.6%) as their first language with the rest speaking
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 ...
.
, the population was 53.5% male and 46.5% female. The population was made up of 22 Swiss men (51.2% of the population) and 1 (2.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 20 Swiss women (46.5%) and (0.0%) non-Swiss women.
[Statistical office of the Canton of Bern]
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 12 or about 34.3% were born in Monible and lived there in 2000. There were 16 or 45.7% who were born in the same canton, while 7 or 20.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 27% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 56.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.2%.
, there were 13 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 20 married individuals, 1 widow or widower and 1 individual who was divorced.
[STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 3 households that consist of only one person and 2 households with five or more people. , a total of 15 apartments (83.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 3 apartments (16.7%) were seasonally occupied.
[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 4.76%. In 2011, single family homes made up 52.6% of the total housing in the municipality.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Heritage sites of national significance
The Forêts du Beucle, a medieval iron mine, is listed as a Swiss
heritage site of national significance.
Politics
In the
2011 federal election the most popular party was another local party which received 36.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the
Swiss People's Party (SVP) (27.3%), the
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice.
Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...
(18.2%) and the
Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (7.7%). In the federal election, a total of 19 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 65.5%.
[Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election]
accessed 8 May 2012
Economy
, Monible had an unemployment rate of 0.96%. , there were a total of 15 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 13 people employed in the
primary economic sector and about 3 businesses involved in this sector. No one was 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 ...
. 2 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 2 businesses in this sector.
There were 25 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 32.0% of the workforce.
there were a total of 10
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. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 8, all of which were in agriculture. There were no jobs in the secondary sector. That left two jobs in the tertiary sector, one was in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles and one was in the information industry.
, there were 3 workers who commuted into the municipality and 13 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 12 workers (80.0% of the 15 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Monible.
[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 4% used public transportation to get to work, and 52% used a private car.
In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Monible making 150,000
CHF was 13%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 19.1%. For comparison, the rate for the entire canton in the same year, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide rate was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively. In 2009 there were a total of 18 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 6 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There was one person who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The greatest number of workers, 7, made between 50,000 and 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Monible was 84,650 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF.
Religion
From the , 31 or 88.6% 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 ...
, while 3 or 8.6% 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 ...
. 1 belonged to no church, was
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 ...
.
Education
In Monible about 44.4% of the population have completed non-mandatory
upper secondary education, and 18.5% 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 5 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 80.0% were Swiss men, 20.0% were Swiss women.
The Canton of Bern 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 additional schooling 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 2011-12 school year, there were a total of 15 students attending classes in Monible. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 15 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 13.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language.
[Schuljahr 2011/12 pdf document]
accessed 9 May 2013
, there were a total of 6 students attending any school in the municipality. All 6 of the students came from another municipality. During the same year, one resident attended school outside the municipality.
References
External links
{{Authority control
Former municipalities of the canton of Bern
Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern