Merlach FR

FR is the abbreviation for the canton of Friborg in Switzerland and is used to avoid confusion with other entries of the name Merlach .

Merlach
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Freiburg (FR)
District :	lake
BFS no. :	2271
Postal code :	3280
Coordinates :	574 843  /  197 092 coordinates: 46 ° 55 '28 "  N , 7 ° 6' 30"  O ; CH1903:  five hundred and seventy-four thousand eight hundred forty-three  /  197,092
Height :	435  m above sea level M.
Height range :	429–452 m above sea level M.
Area :	0.34  km²
Residents:	565 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	1662 inhabitants per km²
Website:	www.merlach.ch
Location of the municipality

Merlach is the German name of Meyriez ( Freiburger Patois Mèri ^{? / I} ), a political municipality in the lake district (French: District du Lac ) of the Swiss canton of Freiburg .

geography

Merlach lies at 435  m above sea level. M. , 1 km southwest of the district capital Murten (linear distance). The village extends on the south bank of Lake Murten and on the edge of the adjacent Molasse heights , in the northern Freiburg Central Plateau .

With an area of ​​0.33 km², Merlach is the smallest municipality in the canton of Friborg. It comprises a section on the south bank of Lake Murten (around 1 km of the lakeshore line). The community grounds extend southward from the lakeshore over a flat edge of the bank to the adjoining terrace. At the edge of the Merlachfeld is 451  m above sea level. M. reached the highest point of Merlach. In 1997, 82% of the municipal area was in settlements, 6% in forests and woodlands, 6% in agriculture and around 6% was unproductive land.

The only neighboring municipality is Murten , which completely encloses the landside territory of Merlach on the east, south and west sides.

population

With 565 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018) Merlach is one of the smaller communities in the canton of Friborg. The population of Merlach was 244 in 1900. During the 20th century, the population was subject to several fluctuations. The first population surge occurred during the 1950s from 259 inhabitants (1950) to 332 people (1960). After that, the population decreased again slightly until 1980. Rapid population growth has been recorded since 1990 (359 inhabitants). Today the municipality is largely built over. The settlement area of ​​Merlach has thus merged seamlessly with that of Murten.

languages

Due to its historical background, the village is still officially a French-speaking community and is listed as Meyriez in the registers. However, it now has a predominantly German-speaking population and is therefore commonly referred to as Merlach. 81.2% of the residents are German-speaking, 13.5% French-speaking and 1.5% speak Italian (as of 2000).

economy

Until the middle of the 20th century, Merlach was predominantly an agricultural village. Today arable farming and fruit growing only play a marginal role in the income structure of the population. Further jobs are available in local small businesses and especially in the service sector. The most important employer is the lake district hospital in Merlach. In the last few decades the village has developed into a residential community thanks to its attractive location. Most of the gainfully employed are therefore commuters who work mainly in Murten and partly in the Freiburg region.

traffic

The community is very well developed in terms of transport. It is located on the old main road from Bern via Murten to Payerne , but is relieved of transit traffic by the bypass around Murten. The closest connection to the A1 motorway (Bern-Lausanne), which opened in 1997, is around 4 km from the town center. Since August 25, 1876, the municipality has been crossed by the railway line from Murten to Payerne. Murten train station is just outside the municipal boundary, at a distance of 500 m from Merlach. The Transports publics fribourgeois bus route , which runs from Murten via Merlach Spital to Gümmenen , takes care of the fine distribution of public transport .

history

The municipality of Merlach was settled very early. The remains of the pile dwellings from the Bronze Age found on the lake shore are the oldest evidence of human presence . Furthermore, individual traces of the Roman road that led from Aventicum (Avenches) to Petinesca have been preserved .

The place was first mentioned in a document in 1055 under the name Meriei . Later the names Merrie (1228), Merye (1239) and the German name Merlach (1551) appeared. The place name is probably derived from the Gallo-Roman personal name Mellius .

Merlach has been under the rule of Murten since the Middle Ages . In 1475, the village came under the joint administration of the estates of Bern and Freiburg as part of the bailiwick of Murten. In 1536, Merlach von Murten received municipal rights. However, only an area was eliminated that extended as far as the houses of the village, which is why Meyriez has an extremely small municipality today. After the collapse of the Ancien Régime (1798) Merlach came to the canton of Friborg. During the Helvetic Republic and the following period it belonged to the Murten district before it was incorporated into the lake district in 1848 with the new cantonal constitution.

Attractions

See also : List of cultural assets in Merlach

The parish church of Meyriez

The Romanesque parish church, a single-nave building with a polygonal choir, dates back to the 11th and 12th centuries. In 1529 the church was enlarged; the main portal dates from 1670. The rectory was built in 1552 and redesigned around 1700. Also noteworthy is the chatoney country estate from the 18th century with an English landscaped park.

In 1822 an obelisk was erected in memory of the Battle of Murten . It stands on the site of a former battle chapel that was destroyed when the French invaded in 1798.

literature

• Hermann Schöpfer: Les monuments d'art et d'histoire du Canton de Friborg, Tome IV: Le District du lac (I). Edited by the Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1989 (Art Monuments of Switzerland, Volume 81). ISBN 3-909158-21-8 . Pp. 203-241.

Web links

• Official website of the municipality of Merlach
• Hermann Schöpfer: Merlach. 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 .