Vellerat

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Vellerat
Vellerat coat of arms
State : SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland
Canton : Canton of JuraCanton of Jura Law (JU)
District : Delémontw
Municipal municipality : Courrendlini2 w1
Postal code : 2830
former BFS no. : 6728
Coordinates : 594 981  /  241 109 coordinates: 47 ° 19 '15 "  N , 7 ° 22' 20"  O ; CH1903:  594 981  /  241,109
Height : 666  m above sea level M.
Area : 2.04  km²
Population density : 35 inhabitants per km²
Website: www.vellerat.ch
map
Vellerat (Switzerland)
Vellerat
w w w
Parish before the merger on January 1, 2019

Until December 31, 2018, Vellerat was a political municipality in the Delémont district of the canton of Jura in Switzerland . The community has around 70 inhabitants and was nevertheless a bone of contention for many years that made headlines far beyond Switzerland.

On January 1, 2019, Vellerat merged with Courrendlin and Rebeuvelier to form the municipality of Courrendlin.

geography

Vellerat is 666  m above sea level. M. , five kilometers south-southeast of the canton capital Delémont (as the crow flies). The farming village is located on a ledge on the western slope of the valley above the Birs gorge of Choindez , south of the Delsberg basin , a wide depression in the Jura .

The area of ​​the municipal area of ​​only 2.1 km² includes the terrace of Vellerat and the left slope of the Choindez gorge. The west and north-west border runs on the ridge of the Forêt de la Cendre (up to 1030  m above sea level. M. ), while the southern border on the crest of Cote of Porcs located. Here is at 1129  m above sea level. M. also the highest point in the community. In 1997, 3% of the municipal area was settled, 68% forest and woodland, 28% agriculture and less than 1% was unproductive land.

The neighboring communities of Vellerat are Châtillon and Courrendlin in the canton of Jura and Roches in the canton of Bern .

population

With 71 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018), Vellerat is one of the smallest communities in the canton of Jura. 89.4% of the residents are French-speaking, 7.6% German-speaking and 3.0% English-speaking (as of 2000). The population of Vellerat was 88 in 1850 and 115 in 1900. After a peak around 1930 with 128 inhabitants, a significant population decrease has since been registered.

economy

The community is still predominantly agricultural . There are few jobs outside of the agricultural sector in the village. Many employees (more than 60%) are therefore commuters and work mainly in the Delémont region.

history

Historically, Vellerat is a young community. It was only during the Reformation that three German-speaking families settled here and took over the land from the Moutier-Grandval provost as a lease. From 1797 to 1815 Vellerat belonged to France and was initially part of the Mont-Terrible department , from 1800 connected to the Haut-Rhin department . By decision of the Congress of Vienna , the place came to the canton of Bern to the district of Moutier in 1815 . The residents of Vellerat always advocated the creation of the canton of Jura in the 1970s . However, since the municipality had no common border with what was then the Delémont district, it did not enjoy self-determination as to whether it belonged to the canton and therefore inevitably remained with the canton of Bern.

"Free municipality of Switzerland"

With the founding of the canton of Jura on January 1, 1979 (split from the canton of Bern ), Vellerat was separated from its neighboring communities in the Jura by the new cantonal border. A road connection to the canton of Bern is only possible via these places. The Velleratiens then decided to break away from the Canton of Bern and proclaimed the «Free Municipality of Switzerland» Vellerat. They fought tirelessly to join the canton of Jura. It took years of negotiations before the Bernese were ready to agree to another assignment of territory.

Federal referendum

After deliberations by the National Council and Council of States , Vellerat was the subject of the federal referendum on March 10, 1996 on the federal decision on the transfer of the Bernese municipality of Vellerat to the canton of Jura , which was supposed to regulate canton membership. The territory of the cantons is guaranteed by the Swiss Federal Constitution. Therefore, even a change of canton of a small municipality is considered a constitutional amendment and is therefore subject to the approval of the people and cantons within the framework of the mandatory referendum . In the future, voting between the people and the cantons will no longer be required in this procedure of simply changing cantons.

91.7% of the voters and all cantons supported the transfer of the Bernese municipality of Vellerat to the canton of Jura, which enabled the transfer on July 1, 1996. According to opinion polls, those who voted in favor were primarily concerned with the right to self-determination .

partnership

Since June 2001 there has been a partnership between Vellerat and the municipality of Voeren in Belgium , which is also the bone of contention in a political-linguistic dispute about belonging to the Flemish province of Limburg or the French-speaking province of Liège .

  • Vellerat

  • chapel

  • Detail: church window

  • Parish office, old schoolhouse

Web links

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