Sornetan 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 of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking

Bernese Jura Bernese Jura (french: Jura bernois, ) is the name for the French-speaking area of the Swiss canton of Bern, and from 2010 one of ten administrative divisions of the canton. Comprising the three French-speaking districts in the northern part of th ...

(''Jura Bernois''). On 1 January 2015 the former municipalities of

Châtelat Châtelat () was a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura (''Jura Bernois''), however a majority of the residents in Châtelat are German ...

Monible Monible is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura (''Jura Bernois''). On 1 January 2015 the former municipalities of Châtelat, Monibl ...

, 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

Sornetan is first mentioned in 1179 as ''Sornetan''. The municipality was formerly known by its German name ''Sornetal'', however, that name is no longer used. The area around Sornetan was inhabited since antiquity. Some of the earliest finds are scattered items from the Celtic tribes that lived in the area. They were followed by the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

and then by the Burgundians. A noble family using the Sornetan name appear in historic records from the 12th until the 14th centuries. The village was eventually acquired by the

college A college ( Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

of canons of

Moutier-Grandval Abbey Moutier-Grandval Abbey was a Benedictine abbey near the villages of Moutier and Grandval in today's Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It was founded around 640, when Grandval already existed; Moutier gre ...

. When the Abbey was suppressed during the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, Sornetan was placed under the provost of Moutier-Grandval who was under the Prince-Bishop of

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS) ...

. 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 ...

, Sornetan became part of the French

Département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety- ...

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 804 metres near Courgenay (now in the canton of Jura, Switzerland). The ...

. Three years later, in 1800 it became part of the Département of

Haut-Rhin Haut-Rhin (, ; Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; german: Oberelsass, ) is a department in the Grand Est region of France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine. Its name means ''Upper Rhine''. Haut-Rhin is th ...

. After Napoleon'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 B ...

, Sornetan was assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815. Until the Protestant Reformation of 1528, Sornetan was part of the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

of Sapran. After it adopted the new Reformed faith, it joined the Tavannes-Chaindon parish, but only remained until 1538. It then joined the Grandval parish and remained in that parish until 1571, when it joined Bévilard. Sornetan remained part of that parish for almost two centuries, but in 1746 it became an independent parish. The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activitie ...

was built in 1708-09 and today is a Swiss heritage site of national significance. It was renovated in 1964-67. While the village has remained generally agrarian, beginning in the 1970s the services sector began gaining importance. One of the reasons for this change was the construction, in 1971, of a

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...

meeting and training center in the municipality.

Geography

Before the merger, Sornetan had a total area of . As of 2012, a total of or 45.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 50.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 3.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.4% 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 1.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.4%. Out of the forested land, 45.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 5.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.5% is used for growing crops and 23.4% is pastures and 16.1% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The former municipality is located in the hills near the source of the Sorne river. 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.
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 the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visua ...

of the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in it ...

is ''Gules a Chevron Or in chief three Mullets of the same one and two and a Base wavy Azure.''

Demographics

Sornetan had a population (as of 2013) of 139.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 15 January 2015 , 4.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 2.4%. Migration accounted for 0.8%, while births and deaths accounted for 0%. Most of the population () speaks French (99 or 87.6%) as their first language,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

is the second most common (11 or 9.7%) and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

is the third (1 or 0.9%). , the population was 53.2% male and 46.8% female. The population was made up of 65 Swiss men (51.6% of the population) and 2 (1.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 56 Swiss women (44.4%) and 3 (2.4%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 53 or about 46.9% were born in Sornetan and lived there in 2000. There were 31 or 27.4% who were born in the same canton, while 19 or 16.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 9 or 8.0% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 67.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 9.3%. , there were 51 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 55 married individuals, 5 widows or widowers and 2 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 11 households that consist of only one person and households with five or more people. , a total of 36 apartments (65.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 13 apartments (23.6%) were seasonally occupied and 6 apartments (10.9%) 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 1.61%. In 2011, single family homes made up 43.8% of the total housing in the municipality. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:35 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:300 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:60 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:12 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1709 from:start till:111 text:"111" bar:1850 from:start till:299 text:"299" bar:1860 from:start till:247 text:"247" bar:1870 from:start till:237 text:"237" bar:1880 from:start till:220 text:"220" bar:1888 from:start till:184 text:"184" bar:1900 from:start till:181 text:"181" bar:1910 from:start till:184 text:"184" bar:1920 from:start till:171 text:"171" bar:1930 from:start till:143 text:"143" bar:1941 from:start till:152 text:"152" bar:1950 from:start till:148 text:"148" bar:1960 from:start till:129 text:"129" bar:1970 from:start till:131 text:"131" bar:1980 from:start till:113 text:"113" bar:1990 from:start till:117 text:"117" bar:2000 from:start till:113 text:"113"

Heritage sites of national significance

The village

reformed church Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

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 52.1% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Social Democratic Party (SP) (13.3%), the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundati ...

(11.1%) and the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (7.3%). In the federal election, a total of 47 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 can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Univ ...

was 48.0%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Sornetan had an unemployment rate of 1.93%. , there were a total of 64 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 27 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 9 businesses involved in this sector. 21 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 constructio ...

and there were 5 businesses in this sector. 16 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 secon ...

, with 2 businesses in this sector. There were 68 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.1% of the workforce. there were a total of 45

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit 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 used to measure a ...

jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 19, all in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 18 of which 9 were in manufacturing and 7 were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 8, all in a hotel or restaurant. , there were 19 workers who commuted into the municipality and 25 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 43 workers (69.4% of the 62 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Sornetan.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 8.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 32.4% used a private car. In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Sornetan making 150,000 CHF was 13.6%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 20%. 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 54 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 15 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, 17, made between 50,000 and 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Sornetan was 87,873 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF. In 2011 a total of 0.8% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.Statistischer Atlas der Schweiz - Bezüger/-innen von Sozialhilfeleistungen (Sozialhilfeempfänger/-innen), 2011
accessed 18 June 2013

Religion

From the , 64 or 56.6% belonged to the

, while 19 or 16.8% were

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 18 individuals (or about 15.93% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. 9 (or about 7.96% of the population) belonged to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficie ...

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 3 individuals (or about 2.65% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Sornetan about 68.6% of the population have completed non-mandatory

upper secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...

, and 12.9% have completed additional higher education (either

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

or a ''

Fachhochschule A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied ar ...

''). Of the 9 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 66.7% were Swiss men, 22.2% were Swiss women. , there were a total of 9 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 6 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 3 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 14 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