Schafisheim 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

Lenzburg Lenzburg is a town in the central region of the Switzerland, Swiss canton of Aargau and is the capital of the Lenzburg District. The town, founded in the Middle Ages, lies in the Seetal, Seetal valley, about 3 kilometres south of the Aare river. L ...

in the canton of

Aargau Aargau ( ; ), more formally the Canton of Aargau (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capital is Aarau. Aargau is one of the most nort ...

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 ...

History

Evidence of earlier settlements near Schafisheim include urn graves of the

Hallstatt period The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western and Central European archaeological culture of the Late Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe (Hallstatt C, Hallstatt D) from the 8th to ...

and a

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

farm. The modern village of Schafisheim is first mentioned around 1261–64 as ''Scafusa''. The high court right was held by the

Habsburgs The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

, and then from 1415 by

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 ...

. A farm owned by

Murbach Abbey Murbach Abbey () was a famous Benedictine monastery in Murbach, southern Alsace, in a valley at the foot of the Grand Ballon in the Vosges. The monastery was founded in 727 by Eberhard, Count of Alsace, and established as a Benedictine house ...

had the '' Twinggericht'' (low justice and property rights) over the village, which was held until 1482. The ''Twinggericht'' right went to the Lords of Baldegg, then, in 1671, to a branch of the Hallwyl family. In the 15th century the head ''Twingherren'' was probably living at Schafisheim Castle. After passing through several other hands, the ''Twingherren'' power came in 1736 to the brothers Samuel and Etienne Brutel. Schafisheim

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

is first mentioned in 1360. At that time it belonged to the Staufen

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

. In 1496–98, the chapel of St. Leodegar was built on the site of the earlier chapel. The farming settlement of Bettetal was incorporated in 1751 in the municipality. Economically, Schafisheim was dominated by agriculture and a little

viticulture Viticulture (, "vine-growing"), viniculture (, "wine-growing"), or winegrowing is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine ...

together with light, home manufacturing in the 19th century. The brothers Brutel built a thriving printing business in 1736, which closed before 1800. In the 19th and 20th centuries, many residents worked in foreign factories. The opening of the A1 motorway in 1967 led to the establishment of logistics centers and furniture stores, and in 1973 the cantonal road traffic office. Along the road between

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the d ...

and

the village expanded with new residential and commercial areas.

Geography

Schafisheim has an area, , of . Of this area, or 38.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 41.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 20.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.5% is either rivers or lakes.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.2% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 9.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.1%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.8% of the area Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 24.5% is used for growing crops and 11.4% is pastures, while 2.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams. The municipality is located in the Lenzburg district, at the lower exit of the ''Seetal''. It consists of the village of Schafisheim 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 Bettetal and Heuelmüli.

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 Ewe passant Argent.'' This is an example of

canting ' (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: , Van Ophuijsen Spelling System, VOS Spelling: , ) is a pen-like tool used to apply liquid hot wax () in the batik-making process in Indonesia, more precisely (). Traditional consists of copper wax-con ...

with the ewe or sheep () representing the name of the municipality."

Demographics

Schafisheim has a population () of . , 17.5% of the population are foreign nationals.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau -Bereich 01 -Bevölkerung
accessed 20 January 2010 Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 8.2%. Most of the population () speaks German (90.7%), with Italian being second most common ( 2.7%) and Albanian being third ( 1.5%).
accessed 18-May-2010 The age distribution, , in Schafisheim is; 282 children or 10.5% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 381 teenagers or 14.2% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 289 people or 10.8% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 343 people or 12.8% are between 30 and 39, 468 people or 17.4% are between 40 and 49, and 407 people or 15.2% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 305 people or 11.4% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 147 people or 5.5% are between 70 and 79, there are 55 people or 2.0% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 8 people or 0.3% who are 90 and older.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau -Bevölkerungsdaten für den Kanton Aargau und die Gemeinden (Archiv)
accessed 20 January 2010 , there were 83 homes with 1 or 2 persons in the household, 452 homes with 3 or 4 persons in the household, and 420 homes with 5 or more persons in the household. , there were 970 private households (homes and apartments) in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. there were 572 single family homes (or 50.6% of the total) out of a total of 1,130 homes and apartments.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau
accessed 20 January 2010 There were a total of 17 empty apartments for a 1.5% vacancy rate. , the construction rate of new housing units was 3.7 new units per 1000 residents. In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 38.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (17%), the FDP (11.1%) and 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 ...

(9.2%). The historical population is given in the following table:

Heritage sites of national significance

The ''Haus Urech'' (Urech House) at Seetalstrasse 27 and the ''Schlössli'' (small castle) at Lenzburgerstrasse 5, 7 are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance.

Economy

, Schafisheim had an unemployment rate of 1.76%. , there were 76 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 19 businesses involved in this sector. 421 people are 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 are 30 businesses in this sector. 1,440 people are 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 74 businesses in this sector. there were 1,361 workers who lived in the municipality. Of these, 1,058 or about 77.7% of the residents worked outside Schafisheim while 1,245 people commuted into the municipality for work. There were a total of 1,548 jobs (of at least 6 hours per week) in the municipality. Of the working population, 10.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 58.2% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 565 or 22.4% 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 1,426 or 56.6% 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 individuals (or about 0.08% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic faith.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau – Aargauer Zahlen 2009
accessed 20 January 2010

Education

In Schafisheim about 74.5% of the population (between age 25 and 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 ...

''). Of the school age population (), there are 304 students attending

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

, there are 182 students attending secondary school in the municipality.Swiss Federal Statistical Office, list of libraries
accessed 14 May 2010

References

{{Authority control Municipalities of Aargau Cultural property of national significance in Aargau