Schlosswil 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
Bern-Mittelland 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 ...
. On 1 January 2018 the former municipality of Schlosswil merged into the municipality of
Grosshöchstetten
Grosshöchstetten is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Bern-Mittelland (administrative district), Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January ...
.
History
Schlosswil is first mentioned in 1146 as ''Wilare''. Until 1902 it was known as ''Wyl''.
[
The earliest trace of a settlement in the area include scattered ]Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
artifacts as well as carved granite block of indeterminate age. A few 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 ...
artifacts have also been found near the ''Schlossallee'' street. During the Middle Ages, a fortress () was built near the village and it became the seat of the ''Herrschaft
The German term ''Herrschaft'' (plural: ''Herrschaften'') covers a broad semantic field and only the context will tell whether it means, "rule", "power", "dominion", "authority", "territory" or "lordship". In its most abstract sense, it refers ...
'' of Schlosswil. The lords of the fort, the Freiherr
(; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , ) and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in ...
en von Wiler, were first mentioned in 1146. The von Wiler family died out around 1300, and the village and associated territory passed through several noble families including, the Freiherren von Signau and eventually the Senn von Münsingen family. The territory was split in half and passed through several 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 ...
ese patrician families until Burkhard von Erlach reunited the two halves in 1514.Baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
exterior. The various noble families continued to rule over the village and Herrschaft until 1798.[
The village church of St. Germanus was first mentioned in 1239. The current building dates back to 1660.][
Until it was dissolved in 2010, the District of Konolfingen was administered out of the castle in Schlosswil. The district administration was one of the major employers in the municipality. However, about three-quarters of the working population commutes to jobs in Bern, ]Thun
Thun () is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the administrative district of Thun (administrative district), Thun in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Bern, Bern in Switzerland. ...
or other nearby cities.[
]
Geography
Schlosswil has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 70.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 20.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 9.0% is settled (buildings or roads).[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
During the same year, housing and buildings made up 4.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.3%. Out of the forested land, 19.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 54.2% is used for growing crops and 13.3% is pastures, while 3.2% is used for orchards or vine crops.[
The municipality is located between the ]Aare
The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland.
Its total length from its source to i ...
and Emme river valleys. It consists of the village of Schlosswil, the settlement of Thali 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 Öli, Weiergut and Untere Mühle. Until 1980 it included the now independent municipality of Oberhünigen.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Konolfingen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Bern-Mittelland.[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 ''Bendy of four Azure and Or.''
Demographics
Schlosswil has a population () of . , 2.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of -1.7%. Migration accounted for -2.7%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.5%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 10 May 2013
Most of the population () speaks 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 ...
(639 or 97.4%) as their first language, Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...
is the second most common (7 or 1.1%) and French is the third (3 or 0.5%). There is 1 person who speaks 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 ...
.[
, the population was 50.5% male and 49.5% female. The population was made up of 320 Swiss men (48.8% of the population) and 11 (1.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 318 Swiss women (48.5%) and 7 (1.1%) non-Swiss women.][Statistical office of the Canton of Bern]
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 190 or about 29.0% were born in Schlosswil and lived there in 2000. There were 336 or 51.2% who were born in the same canton, while 66 or 10.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 30 or 4.6% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.7%.][
, there were 287 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 327 married individuals, 18 widows or widowers and 24 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 61 households that consist of only one person and 21 households with five or more people. , a total of 248 apartments (96.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 5 apartments (1.9%) were seasonally occupied and 4 apartments (1.6%) were empty.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 1.5 new units per 1000 residents.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.04%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Heritage sites of national significance
The Castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
and surrounding park is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
Politics
In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 32% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (21.3%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (13.1%) 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%). In the federal election, a total of 281 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 54.4%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election]
accessed 8 May 2012
Economy
, Schlosswil had an unemployment rate of 0.72%. , there were a total of 197 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 62 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 21 businesses involved in this sector. 20 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 5 businesses in this sector. 115 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 17 businesses in this sector.[ There were 390 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.6% of the workforce.
there were a total of 149 ]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 43, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 17, all of which were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 89. In the tertiary sector; 2 or 2.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 15 or 16.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 12 or 13.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 8 or 9.0% were in education.
, there were 88 workers who commuted into the municipality and 291 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 13.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 58.7% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 511 or 77.9% 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 40 or 6.1% 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 ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 10 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.52% of the population), there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 46 individuals (or about 7.01% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 person who was Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
and 2 individuals who were Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
. 23 (or about 3.51% 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 ...
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 ...
, and 45 individuals (or about 6.86% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Schlosswil about 294 or (44.8%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 86 or (13.1%) 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 86 who completed tertiary schooling, 70.9% were Swiss men, 25.6% 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 ...
.[Schuljahr 2011/12 pdf document]
accessed 9 May 2013
, there were 7 students in Schlosswil who came from another municipality, while 36 residents attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
References
{{Authority control
Former municipalities of the canton of Bern
Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern