Riaz

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the Bangladeshi film journalist, cameraman and director see Shaheen Dill-Riaz .

Riaz
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Freiburg (FR)
District :	Gruyère
BFS no. :	2148
Postal code :	1632
Coordinates :	571 179  /  165487 coordinates: 46 ° 38 '24 "  N , 7 ° 3' 44"  O ; CH1903:  five hundred and seventy-one thousand one hundred seventy-nine  /  165487
Height :	726  m above sea level M.
Height range :	709-1069 m above sea level M.
Area :	7.75  km²
Residents:	2781 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	359 inhabitants per km²
Website:	www.riaz.ch
Old farmhouse in Riaz
Location of the municipality

Riaz ( Freiburger Patois Riyâ ^{? / I} ) is a municipality in the Gruyère district of the canton of Friborg in Switzerland . The former German name Zum Rad is no longer used today.

geography

Riaz lies at 726  m above sea level. M. , 2.5 km north of the district capital Bulle (linear distance). The village extends on both sides of the Sionge stream , at the southern foot of the Gibloux , in the Gruyère region west of Lake Gruyère .

The area of ​​the 7.8 km² municipal area comprises a section of the Bulle basin in the foothills of the Friborg Alps . The eastern part of the area is occupied by the wide valley of the Sionge, a side stream of the Saane (French: Sarine). To the east of this valley, Riaz extends to the plateau of La Fin and to the edge of the forest hill Vaucens . To the west, the municipality extends to the ridge Sur les Monts , which is part of the Gibloux hills . Here is in the forest area Joux de Pra Fillieux with 1069  m above sea level. M. reached the highest point of Riaz. A small portion of the community area lies north of this ridge in the catchment area of ​​the Gérignoz stream and extends to the edge of the Les Gurles moorland . In 1997, 10% of the municipal area was in settlements, 24% in forests and woodlands, 65% in agriculture and a little less than 1% was unproductive land.

Riaz includes extensive single-family houses and the L'Etrey and Joulin settlements ( 750  m above sea level ) at the foot of the slope of Sur les Monts, as well as numerous individual farms. Neighboring municipalities to Riaz are Bulle , Vaulruz , Sâles , Marsens and Echarlens .

population

With 2781 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018), Riaz is one of the medium-sized communities in the canton of Friborg. 92.2% of the residents are French-speaking, 3.3% German-speaking and 1.0% Portuguese-speaking (as of 2000). The population of Riaz was 593 in 1850 and 630 in 1900. After the population had only increased slowly until 1970 (795 inhabitants), since then there has been rapid population growth with a doubling of the population within 30 years.

economy

Until the middle of the 20th century, Riaz was a predominantly agricultural village. Today, livestock and dairy farming and, to a lesser extent, arable farming are only of minor importance in the income structure of the population. Further jobs are available in local small businesses and especially in the service sector. Various small businesses such as joineries, carpenters and construction companies have settled in the village. Since 1887, Riaz has been the location of the district hospital, which was previously stationed in Bulle. In the last few decades the village has developed into a residential community thanks to its attractive location. Many people in employment are therefore commuters who work in the Bulle and Freiburg regions.

traffic

The community is very well developed in terms of transport. It is on the main road from Freiburg to Bulle . From this a connecting road branches off at Riaz to Corbières , which crosses the Lac de la Gruyère at a narrow point. The next connection to the A12 motorway , which has been open continuously from Bern to Vevey since 1981 and crosses the municipality, is around 2 km from the town center. Riaz is connected to the public transport network by three bus routes operated by Transports publics Fribourgeois ; they lead from Freiburg via Rossens or via La Roche to Bulle and from Romont to Bulle.

history

The municipality of Riaz was already settled in Roman times. During excavations in the 19th century and during the construction of the A12 motorway, the remains of a temple, probably built under Emperor Vespasian , were found in the border area of ​​Riaz, Marsens and Echarlens . The temple, which was dedicated to the god Mars Caturix, as well as the nearby vicus were destroyed in the year 260 during the first invasions of the Alemanni . A burial site was also discovered from the time of the Merovingians .

The first written mention of the place took place in 859 under the name Roda ; the Latin name also used in the Middle Ages was Rotavilla . Later the names Villa Roda (900), ecclesia Rode (1055), Rota in Ogo (1136), Rua in Ogo (1228), Rya (1476) and Riat (1668) appeared. The place name is not - as previously assumed - derived from the Latin word rota (wheel), but comes from the Celtic language, in which red existed in the meaning of way , passage .

In the High Middle Ages, Riaz belonged to the territory of the Kingdom of Burgundy . In 1011 King Rudolf III handed over the the village to his wife Irmengarde. Riaz gave this to her son Hugues, who was Bishop of Lausanne . Since then the village has been under the control of the Bishop of Lausanne. In 1196 it was the meeting place of the bishop with the important aristocrats of the region, as the former consolidated his holdings around Bulle against the Counts of Gruyères . The Freiburg people pillaged the village in 1252 in the war against the Counts of Savoy . The Bishop of Lausanne then demanded as reparation from the Friborg the funds for the reconstruction of Riaz.

In 1476, Riaz signed a castle law contract with Freiburg, which required mutual support in armed conflicts. When Bern conquered Vaud in 1536, Riaz placed himself under the protection of Freiburg and was assigned to the Bailiwick of Bulle. After the collapse of the Ancien Régime (1798), the village belonged to the Bulle district during the Helvetic and the subsequent period until 1848, before it was incorporated into the Gruyères district.

Attractions

See also : List of cultural assets in Riaz

As the property of the Bishop of Lausanne, Riaz became a parish as early as the 11th century. The church, which was destroyed in 1252 and later rebuilt, was in such poor condition around 1800 that a new building was necessary. The new church was consecrated in 1828. The substructure of the Roman temple was reconstructed and is now open to the public.

Personalities

• Charles Morerod OP (* 1961), Swiss theologian, dogmatist and Roman Catholic bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Friborg
• Maurice Ropraz (* 1965), politician and State Councilor of the Canton of Friborg

Web links

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

• Official website of the municipality of Riaz (French)
• Aerial views of the village
• Alain-Jacques Czouz-Tornare: Riaz. 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 .