Plagne () 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 Jura bernois administrative district 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 ...

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 ...

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 2014 the former municipalities of Plagne and

Vauffelin Vauffelin () is a former Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Jura bernois (administrative district), Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura (''Jur ...

merged into the new municipality of

Sauge Sauge () is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Jura bernois (administrative district), Jura bernois administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Bern, Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French ...

History

Plagne is first mentioned in 1311 as ''Blenn'', though this comes from a 1441 copy of the original document. In 1610 it was mentioned as ''Plaentsch''. The municipality was formerly known by its German name ''Plentsch'', however, that name is no longer used. In 1311 Plagne was part of a

fief A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

owned by the Basel Cathedral that was granted to Bourkard de La Roche. It was part of the

seigniory In English law, seignory or seigniory, spelled ''signiory'' in Early Modern English (; ; ), is the lordship (authority) remaining to a grantor after the grant of an estate in fee simple. '' Nulle terre sans seigneur'' ("No land without a lord") ...

Erguel Erguël is a medieval seigniory of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Basel, and under protectorate of Biel/Bienne, under military jurisdiction from 1335, in the now called valley of St.-Imier, in the now Bernese Jura, Switzerland. The Sire of the ...

which was owned by the Prince Bishop of

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 ...

. After the 1797 French victory and the

Treaty of Campo Formio The Treaty of Campo Formio (today Campoformido) was signed on 17 October 1797 (26 Vendémiaire VI) by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Philipp von Cobenzl as representatives of the French Republic and the Austrian monarchy, respectively. The trea ...

, Plagne 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 ...

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 ...

. A few years later, 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 ...

, Plagne was assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815. In 1862 a fire destroyed the village core and it had to be rebuilt in the following years. During the Early Modern Era, in addition to agriculture, some of the residents mined a small ore deposit south of Les Ferrières or mined white pottery clay. At the end of the 18th Century many residents began making watch parts in home workshops. Beginning in the 1970s the village's population grew rapidly as commuters to

Biel/Bienne Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; German language, German: ''Biel'' ; French language, French: ''Bienne'' ; Bernese German, locally ; ; ; ) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the ...

moved out to Plagne.

Geography

Before the merger, Plagne had a total area of . Of this area, or 33.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 61.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 4.7% is settled (buildings or roads).Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.2%. Out of the forested land, 54.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 7.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 6.4% is used for growing crops and 16.8% is pastures and 10.2% is used for alpine pastures. The former municipality is located on the mountain slopes above the

valley. On 31 December 2009 District de Courtelary, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Arrondissement administratif Jura bernois.

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 ''Per pale Or and Gules overall three Cauldrons counterchanged.''

Demographics

Plagne had a population (as of 2011) of 364.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
/ref> , 2.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals.
accessed 4 January 2012 Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of -9.1%. Migration accounted for -10.6%, while births and deaths accounted for -3.5%. 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), ...

(300 or 76.3%) 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 21.1%) 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 (3 or 0.8%). , the population was 50.4% male and 49.6% female. The population was made up of 177 Swiss men (49.0% of the population) and 5 (1.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 174 Swiss women (48.2%) and 5 (1.4%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 153 or about 38.9% were born in Plagne and lived there in 2000. There were 137 or 34.9% who were born in the same canton, while 54 or 13.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 33 or 8.4% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 52.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 27.4%. , there were 149 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 200 married individuals, 22 widows or widowers and 22 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 43 households that consist of only one person and 13 households with five or more people. , a total of 154 apartments (62.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 71 apartments (28.9%) were seasonally occupied and 21 apartments (8.5%) 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 1.55%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = top:10 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:400 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:80 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:16 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:262 text:"262" bar:1860 from:start till:286 text:"286" bar:1870 from:start till:258 text:"258" bar:1880 from:start till:273 text:"273" bar:1888 from:start till:256 text:"256" bar:1900 from:start till:292 text:"292" bar:1910 from:start till:258 text:"258" bar:1920 from:start till:266 text:"266" bar:1930 from:start till:224 text:"224" bar:1941 from:start till:232 text:"232" bar:1950 from:start till:240 text:"240" bar:1960 from:start till:239 text:"239" bar:1970 from:start till:277 text:"277" bar:1980 from:start till:310 text:"310" bar:1990 from:start till:347 text:"347" bar:2000 from:start till:393 text:"393"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 34.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Social Democratic Party (SP) (19.2%), 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 ...

(10.7%) and the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (9.1%). In the federal election, a total of 107 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 36.0%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Plagne had an unemployment rate of 0.8%. , there were a total of 50 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 8 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 3 businesses involved in this sector. 5 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 3 businesses in this sector. 37 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 11 businesses in this sector. there were a total of 36

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 6, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 5 of which 3 were in manufacturing and 2 were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 25. In the tertiary sector; 2 or 8.0% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 4 or 16.0% were in the movement and storage of goods, 6 or 24.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 8.0% were technical professionals or scientists, 3 or 12.0% were in education and 3 or 12.0% were in health care. , there were 12 workers who commuted into the municipality and 147 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 12.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 12.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 67.4% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 55 or 14.0% 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 270 or 68.7% 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 10 individuals (or about 2.54% 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. 54 (or about 13.74% 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 8 individuals (or about 2.04% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Plagne about 149 or (37.9%) 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 38 or (9.7%) 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 38 who completed tertiary schooling, 52.6% were Swiss men, 39.5% 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 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 19 students attending classes in Plagne. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 19 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 5.3% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 26.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there were 25 students from Plagne who attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

Website of the municipality of Plagne
{{Authority control Former municipalities of the canton of Bern