Murgenthal

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Murgenthal
Murgenthal coat of arms
State : SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland
Canton : Kanton AargauKanton Aargau Aargau (AG)
District : Zofingenw
BFS no. : 4279i1 f3 f4
Postal code : 4853
UN / LOCODE : CH MRG
Coordinates : 629 826  /  235085 coordinates: 47 ° 15 '58 "  N , 7 ° 49' 58"  O ; CH1903:  six hundred twenty-nine thousand eight hundred twenty-six  /  235085
Height : 412  m above sea level M.
Height range : 398-570 m above sea level M.
Area : 18.62  km²
Residents: 3014 (December 31, 2019)
Population density : 162 inhabitants per km²
Proportion of foreigners :
(residents without
citizenship )
19.9% (December 31, 2019)
Website: www.murgenthal.ch
Location of the municipality
Kanton Basel-Landschaft Kanton Basel-Landschaft Kanton Bern Kanton Luzern Kanton Solothurn Bezirk Aarau Bezirk Brugg Bezirk Lenzburg Bezirk Kulm Aarburg Bottenwil Brittnau Kirchleerau Kölliken Moosleerau Murgenthal Oftringen Reitnau Rothrist Safenwil Staffelbach AG Strengelbach Uerkheim Vordemwald Wiliberg ZofingenMap of Murgenthal
About this picture
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Murgenthal ( Swiss German : ˈmʊrɡətə ) is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Aargau . It belongs to the district of Zofingen , lies in the extreme southwest on the Aare and borders the cantons of Bern , Lucerne and Solothurn . The community was created in 1901 from the merger of Riken and Balzenwil; With over 18 square kilometers, it is the fourth largest in the canton in terms of area.

geography

The village of Murgenthal, the center of the extensive community, is located next to the confluence of the Murg and the Aare . About one and a half kilometers further south, in the Murg valley, lies the hamlet of Walliswil. Along the two bodies of water, towards the northeast and south, there is a narrow river plain that is nowhere wider than 200 meters. The plain is drained by the Red Canal , which was built in the 17th century and is 8.5 kilometers long , which extends from Walliswil to Rothrist .

The level is limited by a steep step in the terrain that merges into another, elevated level. Over two thirds of this is covered with forest, which forms a significant part of the largest contiguous forest area in the canton of Aargau. The villages of Hohwart and Glashütten are located southeast of Murgenthal in a two kilometer long and 400 meter wide clearing island , which is surrounded on all sides by forest. The village of Riken , one and a half kilometers northeast of Murgenthal, is surrounded on three sides by forest. In the far south-east, over four kilometers from Murgenthal, in the Pfaffneren valley, there is the village of Balzenwil and the hamlet of Gruben.

The area of ​​the municipality is 1862 hectares , of which 1172 hectares are forested and 159 hectares are built over. The highest point is at 501 meters on the Grueberhöchi near Balzenwil, the lowest at 405 meters on the Aare. Neighboring communities are Rothrist in the northeast, Vordemwald in the east, Brittnau in the southeast, the Lucerne community Pfaffnau in the south, the Bernese communities Roggwil and Wynau in the west and the Solothurn communities Wolfwil in the west and Fulenbach in the northwest.

history

Murgatun was first mentioned in 1255 in a document from Count Ludwig von Frohburg. The place name comes from the Celtic Morgiodunon or the late Latin Morgiodunum , which means "fortified structure on the Morgia / Murg". At that time, Murgenthal, Glashütten and Riken were part of the Aarburg office , which was owned by the Frohburger . They sold the office to the Habsburgs in 1299 , who thus had both lower and blood jurisdiction . In contrast, Balzenwil, first mentioned in 1197, had a special legal position: the lower court lay with the Pfaffnau rulership of the St. Urban monastery , the high court with the Bernese office in Aarwangen .

Aerial view (1970)

In 1415 the confederates conquered Aargau. The various villages and hamlets around Murgenthal now belonged to the subject area of ​​the city of Bern , the so-called Bernese Aargau . Balzenwil was also assigned to the Aarburg office. Even after the Reformation was introduced in 1528, the monastery located in Lucerne had a certain influence: between 1640 and 1645, the Red Canal was created as a joint effort by the Catholic monks and the Reformed Bailiff Jakob Wyss to channel water from the Murg to the rough meadows in Rothrist . In March 1798 the French took Switzerland, ousted the «Gracious Lords» of Bern and proclaimed the Helvetic Republic . The part of the Aarburg office located to the west of the Wigger initially belonged to the Langenthal district in the canton of Bern and in March 1803 came to the canton of Aargau.

Balzenwil and Riken were independent political communities. However, Riken comprised by far the largest part of today's municipal area, even the hamlet of Gruben, located directly next to Balzenwil, was one of them. After the opening of the Aarburg - Herzogenbuchsee railway line on March 16, 1857 and the Aare Bridge in 1863, Murgenthal developed into the actual center of the municipality of Riken; Numerous industrial companies settled next to the train station. In 1900 Riken had 1,729 inhabitants, Balzenwil only 191. A year later, the two communities were merged and Murgenthal gave the new community its name. Since the beginning of the 1950s, the population has only increased slightly.

Attractions

Bernese boundary stone on the Murg Bridge between Murgenthal and Wynau
Landscape in the evening in Riken

The first church in the reformed parish of Murgenthal was built between 1852 and 1854 in the neo-Romanesque style in Glashütten. The dilapidated building had to be demolished in 1964 and replaced by a new building in the same place.

coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms reads: "In blue on a green three-mountain, three white stemmed clovers, raised by a white cross of paws." The coat of arms first appeared on the seal of the municipality of Riken in 1811 and was retained after the merger with Balzenwil. The reasons for the introduction of this coat of arms motif are unknown as there is no record of it.

population

The population developed as follows:

year 1764 1850 1900 1930 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Residents 773 1'517 1,920 2,413 2,638 2,758 2,673 2,520 2,716 2,741 2,803

On December 31, 2019, 3,014 people lived in Murgenthal, the proportion of foreigners was 19.9%. In the 2015 census, 40.6% described themselves as Reformed and 20.4% as Roman Catholic ; 39.0% were non-denominational or of other faiths. In the 2000 census, 90.7% stated German as their main language, 2.8% Albanian , 2.2% Italian , 1.9% Serbo-Croatian and 0.9% Turkish .

Politics and law

The assembly of those entitled to vote, the municipal assembly , exercises legislative power. The executing authority is the five-member municipal council . He is elected by the people in the majority procedure, his term of office is four years. The parish council leads and represents the parish. To this end, it implements the resolutions of the municipal assembly and the tasks assigned to it by the canton. The District Court of Zofingen is primarily responsible for legal disputes . Murgenthal belongs to the Peace Judges' Circle XV (Rothrist).

economy

According to the company structure statistics (STATENT) collected in 2015, there are around 930 jobs in Murgenthal, 8% of them in agriculture, 32% in industry and 60% in the service sector. Most of the employed are commuters and work in the Zofingen / Olten region or in Langenthal .

traffic

Murgenthal station (2019)

The district of Murgenthal is located directly on Hauptstrasse 1 from Zurich to Bern , around six kilometers from the Rothrist junction of the A1 motorway. The other towns can be reached on secondary roads. Murgenthal is connected to Fulenbach by the wooden bridge Fulenbach – Murgenthal across the Aare. Regional trains to Olten and Langenthal stop at the SBB train station in Murgenthal . The 4,745-meter-long Murghaltunnel of the new Mattstetten – Rothrist line runs under Riken and Glashütten . A bus line operated by the Limmat Bus company runs from Zofingen train station via Rothrist and Murgenthal to Glashütten. Balzenwil, Walliswil and Riken cannot be reached by public transport.

education

The community has three kindergartens and three school houses in which primary school can be completed. The district school , the secondary school and the secondary school can be attended in Rothrist . The closest grammar school is the Zofingen Cantonal School .

Personalities

literature

Web links

Commons : Murgenthal  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Cantonal population statistics 2019. Department of Finance and Resources, Statistics Aargau, March 30, 2020, accessed on April 2, 2019 .
  2. Cantonal population statistics 2019. Department of Finance and Resources, Statistics Aargau, March 30, 2020, accessed on April 2, 2019 .
  3. a b Beat Zehnder: The community names of the canton of Aargau . In: Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau (Ed.): Argovia . tape 100 . Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau 1991, ISBN 3-7941-3122-3 , p. 293-296 .
  4. a b National map of Switzerland, sheet 1108, Swisstopo.
  5. Standard area statistics - municipalities according to 4 main areas. Federal Statistical Office , November 26, 2018, accessed on May 30, 2019 .
  6. ^ Joseph Galliker, Marcel Giger: Municipal coat of arms of the Canton of Aargau . Lehrmittelverlag des Kantons Aargau, book 2004, ISBN 3-906738-07-8 , p. 224 .
  7. Population development in the communes of the Canton of Aargau since 1850. (Excel) (No longer available online.) In: Eidg. Volkszählung 2000. Statistics Aargau, 2001, archived from the original on October 8, 2018 ; accessed on May 30, 2019 .
  8. Resident population by religious affiliation, 2015. (Excel) In: Population and Households, Community Tables 2015. Statistics Aargau, accessed on May 30, 2019 .
  9. Swiss Federal Census 2000: Economic resident population by main language as well as by districts and municipalities. (Excel) (No longer available online.) Statistics Aargau, archived from the original on August 10, 2018 ; accessed on May 30, 2019 .
  10. ↑ circles of justice of the peace. Canton of Aargau, accessed on June 21, 2019 .
  11. Statistics of the corporate structure (STATENT). (Excel; 157 kB) Statistics Aargau, 2016, accessed on May 30, 2019 .