Bellach

Bellach
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Solothurn (SO)
District :	Livers
BFS no. :	2542
Postal code :	4512
UN / LOCODE :	CH BEL
Coordinates :	604.65 thousand  /  229373 coordinates: 47 ° 12 '55 "  N , 7 ° 30' 0"  O ; CH1903:  604,650  /  229373
Height :	450  m above sea level M.
Height range :	423-546 m above sea level M.
Area :	5.29  km²
Residents:	5213 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	985 inhabitants per km²
Website:	www.bellach.ch
View of Bellach
Location of the municipality

Bellach (in the local dialect Bäuch ) is a municipality in the Lebern district in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland .

The village of Bellach is located at the southern foot of the Jura between Solothurn and Grenchen .

geography

In addition to the city, the suburban community in the west of the city of Solothurn borders on six other communities, namely Langendorf , Oberdorf , Lommiswil , Selzach , Lüsslingen-Nennigkofen and Biberist .

The area is 530 ha, the altitude varies from 425 m in the south to 544 m in the north.

population

The population development of the municipality of Bellach was initially very slow. Around 1500 about 200 people should have lived here. Around 1800 there were about 430 and around 1850 686 inhabitants. By 1941 the population had doubled to 1,377, in 1950 there were 1,606 people. Since then the population has increased rapidly. Since the 1950s, the two large residential quarters Grederhof and Franziskanerhof have been built in the eastern part of the village, first south and then north of Bielstrasse .

Population development

year	Residents	year	Residents
1500	200 1)	1970	3871
1800	430 1)	1980	4361
1850	686	1990	5200
1941	1377	2000	5150
1950	1606	2001	5200
1960	2319	2010	5183
1) Approximate information

Religions - Denominations
As of May 15, 2007

Residents	5218
religion	Residents
Roman Catholic	1796
Reformed	1476
Christian Catholic	17th
Islam	664
Other	257
Non-denominational	1008

government

legislative branch

The local council has 13 members (6 FDP, 3 SP / Greens, 2 CVP, 2 SVP). A good 130 people work part-time in the municipal council and commissions. The municipal administration has been housed in its own administration building since 1973, a joint building with the post office. Equipped with state-of-the-art IT resources since 1974, 9 people now work full-time. As in many other places, the main problems are currently finances. The construction of the Turbensaal, a new primary school and a kindergarten in the Franziskanerhof, the renovation and expansion of the Kaselfeld primary school and an extension to the Dorf school required investments of almost 30 million francs. Elderly and nursing homes have been set up in the region together with the surrounding communities. A regional composting plant was realized privately. The increasingly scarce building land reserves will guide the development of the community in the coming years in a somewhat calmer path, which from the point of view of the authorities can only be desirable. As part of the new local planning, the future development of the community has been redefined, in particular the relationship between residential and commercial zones.

economy

Aare near Bellach

Geissloch Viaduct of the Solothurn-Münster Railway near Bellach

Bellach was a small farming village for a long time. In addition to agriculture, there was only a little small business. Agriculture has experienced steady development over the centuries, but the land in the repeatedly flooded Aare plain brought very variable yields. Since the second correction of the Jura waters, normal agricultural production has also been possible in this area; many even believe that it is being farmed too intensively. Today there are still 16 farms in Bellach, including some purely arable farms.

Attempts to operate a modern mill around 1840 using the water power from the Haltebach and Bellacher Weiher failed. In 1857 Kaspar Schwarz from Brugg bought the mill, the pond and the water rights and founded a cotton weaving mill. After him, the pond was given the name "Black Sea", which is still used today. Cotton weaving developed rapidly and was expanded several times. In 1923 it was sold to Fritz Leysinger and operated successfully until the 1950s. Changed market requirements and domestic and foreign competition from large companies led to production being discontinued in 1969.

An iron foundry that manufactured threshing machines around 1880 and exported to South America, as well as two cigar manufacturers, remained less well known.

With the emergence of the watch industry and the construction of the Solothurn-Münster-Bahn (SMB), the proportion of workers in the population increased. Up to the Second World War, a large number of new, small commercial and industrial companies emerged, but most of them did not survive the great crisis.

Larger companies settled here from the mid-1930s, such as Fraisa SA, Kisag AG and Carrosserie Hess AG. Käser Stahlbau, Agathon AG, Lanco AG, Almeta Recycling AG, Almeta Metallhandel AG, EroFrikart AG, Gressly AG joined later. Even today, the industrial sector in town employs more people than the service sector. Larger car garages stand out along Bielstrasse: Arnet AG (Mercedes), Garage Galliker AG Bellach (Opel, Citroën, Honda), Turbengarage AG (Renault, Nissan, Dacia). From what were initially small, local businesses, well-known businesses develop, such as MAB, the Holzbaubetriebe Späti AG and Flury / Hallag AG, and the L. Prétat machine factory. A Coop-Center, 1 bakery, 1 Denner shop and a Lidl allow grocery shopping in the village.

Tourism / leisure

In the nearby Aare plain, an extensive network of corridors is ideal for hiking and cycling . In the forest to the north of the community there are forest trails, a VITA trail, 2 forest and wood educational trails, and 3 picnic areas. The formerly commercially used Bellacher Weiher and the "Weihertäli", which stretches west to Selzach, are now a popular local recreation area. Its importance is explained with a new nature trail.

The cultural life in the village suffered somewhat in the 1970s and 1980s, on the one hand because there was no hall for 20 years, on the other hand because the proximity of the canton capital with its diverse range of attractions attracts many people from Bellach. The Turbensaal has been helping to revive cultural independence since 1992.

history

The Bellacher Weiher

The area of ​​Bellach has been settled for about 3000 years, but the place name is first mentioned in 1294 as Bella . Finds known to this day show that the early settlements were exclusively north of the SBB line, the two Roman manors on the Geugisbüel and on the Weiherrain, thus protected from the floods of the Aare. The statue of Venus von Bellach from the beginning of the 2nd century AD, found in the 1680s, is known.

The name is derived from the Gallo-Roman * in Bellaco (fundo) at the Bellus estate .

The Bellacher Weiher was artificially created as early as 1548, initially to supply the nearby town with fish. Later and until the beginning of our century, pond ice was broken in winter. The breweries in the city of Solothurn stored this in cellars and used it in summer to cool the beer.

Plentiful spring water resources were sold to the community of Langendorf and above all to the city of Solothurn. The water from the Römersmatt was first led into the city in a wooden pipe and from around 1780 in a stone pipe. This "sell-out" meant that the community itself suffered from a lack of water in the years after 1940 and had to develop a source of spring water on Selzacher soil. In 1972 the town water in the Römersmatt could finally be bought back.

The Altermatt map from 1822 shows a different south-eastern border to Solothurn than today, the area east of the torrent up to the Brühlgraben in Solothurn at that time still belonged to Bellach.

In 1774 Franziskus Fröhlicher , Abbot of Fischingen, was born in Bellach.

Attractions

See also : List of cultural assets in Bellach

Lommiswil quarry

In the municipality of Oberdorf, the community owns not only forest in the Steingrueben area but also a quarry in which dinosaur traces were discovered a few years ago . Since then, these have been an attraction in our area and can be viewed from a specially constructed viewing pulpit.

The well-known white Solothurn stone used to be mined in the quarry, currently only yellowish layers are present.

Powder house

The distinctive, defiant building was probably built at the beginning of the 18th century by the cantonal military administration at the time in an open field outside the city to store gunpowder and ammunition. Several almost identical buildings were erected around the city. The locations in the open field should keep the damage as low as possible in the event of an explosion. Until the first half of the 20th century, the building served as a storage facility for various types of ammunition, later only much more harmless items were stored, most recently uniform material. A well thought-out construction method and a ventilation system that was sophisticated for the time ensured a balanced, dry climate in the unheated building. In the 1990s, as part of its austerity measures, the canton sold buildings that were no longer needed, including the powder houses. Fortunately, the Bellach community was able to acquire the building and, after a successful, extensive restoration and expansion, make it available to the public for all kinds of festive events.

Chalet Geissfluh / Bäucher Hut

The simple mountain house, without water and electricity connections, was built in 1934. At that time the house was only accessible on foot. H. all building material had to be carried over a considerable distance to the building site. With the construction of a new forest access road, which leads into the Althüsli, the Bäucher Hütte is better developed today, only the last 150 m have to be covered on foot. The Chalet Geissfluh has been renovated over and over again, but the charm of the simple mountain house without any civilization comfort has been preserved.

coat of arms

The coat of arms shows a gray horse with torn reins on a blue background.

Web links

Commons : Bellach  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the municipality of Bellach
• Hans Sigrist: Bellach. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Permanent and non-permanent resident population by year, canton, district, municipality, population type and gender (permanent resident population). In: bfs. admin.ch . Federal Statistical Office (FSO), August 31, 2019, accessed on December 22, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Dinosaur tracks-in-the-quarry-near-lommiswil on the server erlebnis-geologie.ch
3. ^ CA Meyer: The dinosaur tracks in the quarry of the civil parish of Bellach (above Lommiswil). In: Bellacher Calendar 1992, pp. 83-88.