Sutz-Lattrigen is a municipality in the Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is home to a number of Neolithic and Bronze Age lake shore archeological sites, including one that is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
History
The municipality is situated on the shore of Lake Biel. In 2007, the remains of the oldest known building in Switzerland – a pile dwelling dated to 3863 BC – were discovered in the lake near Sutz-Lattrigen. The shoreline was occupied by a Corded ware culture settlement through the Neolithic and into the Bronze Age. In 2011 the remains of the settlement was included in an UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Sutz village is first mentioned in 1228 as Soz. In 1262 or 1263 it was mentioned as Souz. Lattrigen village was first mentioned in 1270 as Lattringun. During the Middle Ages the villages were both part of the lands of the Counts of Neuchâtel-Nidau. In 1398, the two villages and much of the surrounding area were acquired by the city of Bern. A number of local patrician families and monastic houses owned land or rights in Sutz and Lattrigen over the following century. Gradually, the Abbeys of St. Alban in Basel, Frienisberg, Gottstatt and the Münchenbuchsee Commandery acquired most of the land. However, in 1528, Bern adopted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation and secularized all the Abbeys' lands, bringing Sutz and Lattrigen under direct Bernese control. Following the 1798 French invasion, Sutz-Lattrigen became part of the Helvetic Republic district of Seeland. With the 1803 Act of Mediation it became part of the district of Nidau.
The village church of Sutz was first mentioned in 1228, though the romanesque walls indicate that it is older. The bell tower was built in 1485, while the choir is from 1510. The Sutz parish included the villages of Tüscherz and Alfermée (both now part of Twann-Tüscherz) from across the lake. The villages remained part of the Sutz parish until 1993, when they formed their own.
In the 17th century Bern built a pier and warehouse in Lattrigen, which connected the village to lake trade routes. The villages were connected to the Täuffelen-Biel/Bienne railroad in 1916. The villages of Sutz and Lattrigen shared a school and farm land and gradually grew into a single municipality. In the 1950s the population of both villages grew and they expanded into a single continuous settlement.
Geography
Sutz-Lattrigen has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 44.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 31.7% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 21.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 2.5% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.6% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics 2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
During the same year, housing and buildings made up 11.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.9%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.4% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 3.6%. All of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 33.9% is used for growing crops and 5.0% is pasturage, while 5.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 1.9% is in lakes and 0.6% is in rivers and streams.
The municipality is located on the right bank of Lake Biel. It consists of the villages of Sutz and Lattrigen.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Nidau, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Biel/Bienne.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz accessed 4 April 2011
Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules an Anchor Argent between two Mullets Or in chief.Flags of the World.com accessed 9 October 2013
Demographics
Sutz-Lattrigen has a population () of . , 7.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 0.7%. Migration accounted for 0.1%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.4%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 9 October 2013
Most of the population () speaks German (1,064 or 92.4%) as their first language, French is the second most common (53 or 4.6%) and Spanish is the third (9 or 0.8%). There are 7 people who speak Italian and 1 person who speaks Romansh.
, the population was 48.1% male and 51.9% female. The population was made up of 596 Swiss men (44.4% of the population) and 50 (3.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 652 Swiss women (48.5%) and 4 (0.3%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 256 or about 22.2% were born in Sutz-Lattrigen and lived there in 2000. There were 552 or 48.0% who were born in the same canton, while 208 or 18.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 96 or 8.3% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.5%.
, there were 472 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 569 married individuals, 60 widows or widowers and 50 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000 accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 170 households that consist of only one person and 27 households with five or more people.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Haushaltsgrösse accessed 8 May 2013 , a total of 462 apartments (83.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 76 apartments (13.8%) were seasonally occupied and 14 apartments (2.5%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen accessed 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 1.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.9%. In 2011, single family homes made up 69.8% of the total housing in the municipality.Statistischer Atlas der Schweiz - Anteil Einfamilienhäuser am gesamten Gebäudebestand, 2011 accessed 17 June 2013
The historical population is given in the following chart:Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000 accessed 29 January 2011Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Ständige Wohnbevölkerung in Privathaushalten nach Gemeinde und Haushaltsgrösse accessed 12 August 2013
Heritage sites of national significance
The Neolithic / Bronze Age lake-side settlement of Sutz-Lattrigen–Rütte and the Von Rütte-Gut are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance.
World Heritage Site
It is home to the Sutz-Lattrigen–Rütte prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlement that is part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps UNESCO World Heritage Site.UNESCO World Heritage Site - Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps
The Sutz-Lattrigen–Rütte, named after the nearby von Rütte estate, was occupied during the final neolithic period and contains the remains of several settlements and artifacts from the rise of the Corded Ware culture. There are only a few Corded Ware culture sites in Europe and all the known settlements are in Switzerland. Additionally, the only western Swiss lakeside bell beaker pottery was found at the site.
The first village at the site has been dendrochronologically dated to 2763-2746 BC, but very little is known about it. The next settlement of 12 houses, was dated to 2736-2688 BC and 2627 BC. This settlement was destroyed in a fire in 2704 BC and at least 12 new houses were built immediately there after.palafittes.org UNESCO nomination files-Volume I: Id-files of the component parts of the serial, Sites Switzerland (2) accessed09-October-2013
Politics In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 29.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Social Democratic Party (SP) (18.3%), the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (15.7%) and the Green Party (9.6%). In the federal election, a total of 530 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 53.4%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election accessed 8 May 2012
Economy
, Sutz-Lattrigen had an unemployment rate of 1.47%. , there were a total of 382 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 36 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 13 businesses involved in this sector. 163 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 12 businesses in this sector. 183 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 40 businesses in this sector. There were 620 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.7% of the workforce.
there were a total of 299 full-time equivalent jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 16, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 150 of which 85 or (56.7%) were in manufacturing, 52 or (34.7%) were in mining and 2 (1.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 133. In the tertiary sector; 34 or 25.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 4 or 3.0% were in the movement and storage of goods, 17 or 12.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 19 or 14.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 7 or 5.3% were in education and 16 or 12.0% were in health care.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3 accessed 28 January 2011
, there were 239 workers who commuted into the municipality and 494 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 126 workers (34.5% of the 365 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Sutz-Lattrigen.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 23.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 54% used a private car.
In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Sutz-Lattrigen making 150,000 CHF was 12.9%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 18.9%.Statistischer Atlas der Schweiz - Steuerbelastung, 2011 Politische Gemeinden accessed 15 May 2013 For comparison, the average rate for the entire canton in the same year, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide average was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively.Swiss Federal Tax Administration - Grafische Darstellung der Steuerbelastung 2011 in den Kantonen accessed 17 June 2013 In 2009 there were a total of 607 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 243 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 3 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Sutz-Lattrigen was 130,295 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF.Federal Tax Administration Report Direkte Bundessteuer - Natürliche Personen - Gemeinden - Steuerjahr 2009 accessed 15 May 2013
In 2011 a total of 1.5% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.Statistischer Atlas der Schweiz - Bezüger/-innen von Sozialhilfeleistungen (Sozialhilfeempfänger/-innen), 2011 accessed 18 June 2013
Religion