Safien 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

Surselva Surselva Region is one of the eleven administrative districts in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. It was created on 1 January 2017 as part of a reorganization of the canton.Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

canton of Graubünden. The municipalities of

Valendas Valendas is a former municipality in the district of Surselva in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The municipalities of Valendas, Versam, Safien and Tenna merged on 1 January 2013 into the new municipality of Safiental.

Versam Versam is a former municipality in the district of Surselva in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The municipalities of Valendas, Versam, Safien and Tenna merged on 1 January 2013 into the new municipality of Safiental.

, Safien and

Tenna was a after ''Enpō'' and before ''Jōkyō.'' This period spanned the years from September 1681 through February 1684. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * '': The new era name of ''Tenna'' (meaning "Heavenly Imperial Peace") was creat ...

merged on 1 January 2013 into the new municipality of

Safiental Safiental () is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Surselva Region in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The municipalities of Valendas, Versam, Safien and Tenna, Switzerland, Tenna merged on 1 Jan ...

.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 2 January 2013

History

Safien is first mentioned in 1219 as ''Stosavia''.

Geography

Safien had an area, , of . Of this area, 45.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 18.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (35.4%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). The former municipality was the capital of the Safien sub-district of the Surselva district in the mid and upper Safien valley. The only other municipality in the sub-district was

, which occupied the lower Safien valley. The valley is drained by the

Rabiusa The Rabiusa (, i.e. "Raging", in the local German dialect ,Swiss Idiotikon, vol. VI, col. 996, articl''Rin''(meaning 1b) i.e. "Rhine") is a 32 km long tributary of the Rhine. The river originates in the district Hinterrhein in the canton ...

river. The former municipality consists of the village of Safien-Platz (elevation: ) and scattered

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 ...

and single farm houses throughout the valley.

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 ''Gules a Cross gyronny Argent and Sable''Flags of the World.com
accessed 02-Dec-2009 It is based on the simple design of the sub-district, with different colors.

Demographics

, Safien has a population of 294.Swiss Federal Statistics Office – STAT-TAB
''Ständige und Nichtständige Wohnbevölkerung nach Region, Geschlecht, Nationalität und Alter'' accessed 3 October 2012 The historical population is given in the following table: , 0.3% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. : * most of the population speaks

Swiss German Swiss German (Standard German: , ,Because of the many different dialects, and because there is no #Conventions, defined orthography for any of them, many different spellings can be found. and others; ) is any of the Alemannic German, Alemannic ...

(96.1%), with

Swiss Italian The Italian language in Italian Switzerland or Swiss Italian (, ) is the variety of the Italian language taught in the Italian-speaking area of Switzerland. While this variety is mainly spoken in the canton of Ticino and in the southern part ...

being second most common ( 1.6%) and Albanian being third ( 1.6%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 02-Dec-2009 * the gender distribution was 49.5% male and 50.5% female.Graubunden in Numbers
accessed 21 September 2009 * the age distribution was as follows:Graubunden Population Statistics
accessed 21 September 2009

Education

Around 61.7% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university 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 ...

''). The nearest fachhochschules to Safien are in

Chur '' Chur (locally) or ; ; ; ; ; ; or ; , and . is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, town of the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of the Grisons and lies in the Alpine Rhine, Grisonian Rhine Valley, where ...

, such as the Chur University of Applied Sciences and Fachhochschule Graubünden.

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 62.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (18.8%), the FDP (7.4%) and the CVP (5.4%).

Economy

, Safien has an unemployment rate of 0.46%. Employment and businesses were organized as follows:

References

External links

Official website (in German)
{{authority control Safiental Villages in Graubünden Former municipalities of Graubünden