Arth is a village, a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

, and a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Schwyz District Schwyz District is a district of the canton of Schwyz, Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal c ...

in the

canton of Schwyz The canton of Schwyz (german: Kanton Schwyz rm, Chantun Sviz; french: Canton de Schwytz; it, Canton Svitto) is a canton in central Switzerland between the Alps in the south, Lake Lucerne to the west and Lake Zürich in the north, centred on ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. The municipality consists of the villages Arth, Oberarth, and

Goldau Goldau is a town in the community of Arth, canton of Schwyz, Switzerland. It lies between the Rigi and Rossberg mountains, and between lakes Lake Zug, Zug and Lake Lauerz, Lauerz. Well known attractions include the Natur- und Tierpark Goldau an ...

. The four settlements

Rigi Kulm The Rigi (or ''Mount Rigi''; also known as ''Queen of the Mountains'') is a mountain massif of the Alps, located in Central Switzerland. The whole massif is almost entirely surrounded by the water of three different bodies of water: Lake Luce ...

, Rigi First,

Rigi Klösterli The Rigi (or ''Mount Rigi''; also known as ''Queen of the Mountains'') is a mountain massif of the Alps, located in Central Switzerland. The whole massif is almost entirely surrounded by the water of three different bodies of water: Lake Lucerne ...

, and

Rigi Staffel The Rigi (or ''Mount Rigi''; also known as ''Queen of the Mountains'') is a mountain massif of the Alps, located in Central Switzerland. The whole massif is almost entirely surrounded by the water of three different bodies of water: Lake Lucerne ...

on the mountain

Rigi The Rigi (or ''Mount Rigi''; also known as ''Queen of the Mountains'') is a mountain massif of the Alps, located in Central Switzerland. The whole massif is almost entirely surrounded by the water of three different bodies of water: Lake Lucerne ...

to the west of Arth are also part of the municipality.

History

Arth is first mentioned in 1036 as ''Arta''. In 1353 it was mentioned as ''ze Arth''.

Geography

Arth has an area, , of . Of this area, 40.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 46.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 8.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (4.3%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). The municipality is situated on the southern shore of

Lake Zug __NOTOC__ Lake Zug (german: Zugersee) is a lake in Central Switzerland, situated between Lake Lucerne and Lake Zurich. It stretches for 14 km between Arth and the Cham-Zug bay. The Lorze as the main feeder river empties its waters into the lak ...

, and along the Gotthard route between

and

Rossberg The Wildspitz is the highest summit of the Rossberg, a mountain of the Schwyzer Alps The Schwyz Alps (german: Schwyzer Alpen) are a mountain range in Switzerland. They form part of the North-Eastern Swiss Alps and are bordered by the Glaru ...

. It consists of the villages of Arth Oberarth and

as well as the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

of Klösterli and Kulm an der Rigi.

Demographics

Arth has a population (as of ) of . , 23.6% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 6.3%. Most of the population () speaks German (86.9%), with Albanian being second most common ( 3.9%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 3.2%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 28-Aug-2009 the gender distribution of the population was 50.3% male and 49.7% female. The age distribution, , in Arth is; 2,555 people or 26.6% of the population is between 0 and 19. 2,870 people or 29.9% are 20 to 39, and 2,832 people or 29.5% are 40 to 64. The senior population distribution is 734 people or 7.7% are 65 to 74. There are 467 people or 4.9% who are 70 to 79 and 135 people or 1.41% of the population who are over 80. There is one person in Arth who is over 100 years old.Canton Schwyz Statistics
accessed 27 August 2009 there are 3,806 households, of which 1,156 households (or about 30.4%) contain only a single individual. 275 or about 7.2% are large households, with at least five members. In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 38.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (20.8%), the FDP (20.4%) and the

SPS SPS may refer to: Law and government * Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the WTO * NATO Science for Peace and Security * Single Payment Scheme, an EU agricultural subsidy * The Standard Procurement System, fo ...

(16.3%). In Arth about 63.6% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a ''

Fachhochschule A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts ...

''). Arth has an unemployment rate of 1.55%. , there were 329 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 129 businesses involved in this sector. 810 people are employed in the

secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in construction. ...

and there are 88 businesses in this sector. 1868 people are employed in the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

, with 302 businesses in this sector. From the , 6,927 or 72.2% are

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, while 939 or 9.8% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...

. Of the rest of the population, there are less than 5 individuals who belong to the Christian Catholic faith, there are 273 individuals (or about 2.85% of the population) who belong to the Orthodox Church, and there are 7 individuals (or about 0.07% of the population) who belong to another Christian church. There are less than 5 individuals who are

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, and 717 (or about 7.47% of the population) who are

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

ic. There are 84 individuals (or about 0.88% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), 337 (or about 3.51% of the population) belong to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, and 302 individuals (or about 3.15% of the population) did not answer the question. The historical population is given in the following table:

Transport

The railway station at Goldau, named

Arth-Goldau Arth-Goldau railway station (german: Bahnhof Arth-Goldau) is a railway station in the Swiss canton of Schwyz and municipality of Arth. The station is located in the centre of the village of Goldau, which forms part of Arth. The station is an i ...

, is an important junction of the

Swiss Federal Railways Swiss Federal Railways (german: link=no, Schweizerische Bundesbahnen, ''SBB''; french: link=no, Chemins de fer fédéraux suisses, ''CFF''; it, Ferrovie federali svizzere, ''FFS'') is the national railway company of Switzerland. It is usuall ...

. The

Voralpen Express The ''Voralpen-Express'' (''VAE'') is a named train connecting small to medium-sized cities and villages in Central and Eastern Switzerland, carrying this name since 1992. It is operated by Südostbahn (SOB) and runs every hour between St. Gal ...

train connects here to

Luzern , neighboring_municipalities= Adligenswil, Ebikon, Emmen, Horw, Kriens, Malters, Meggen, Neuenkirch Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a ...

and

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website ...

. Meanwhile, trains to

Bellinzona Bellinzona ( , , Ticinese ; french: Bellinzone ; german: Bellenz ; rm, Blizuna )is a municipality, a historic Swiss town, and the capital of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. The town is famous for its three castles (Castelgrande, Montebell ...

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, as well as trains to

Zug , neighboring_municipalities = Cham, Baar, Walchwil, Steinhausen, Unterägeri , twintowns = Fürstenfeld (Austria), Kalesija (Bosnia-Herzegowina) Zug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: ; french: Zoug it, Zugo r ...

and

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

join here with trains heading toward

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

Notable people

Karl Jakob Weber Karl Jakob Weber (12 August 1712 – 1764) was a Swiss architect and engineer who was in charge of the first organized excavations at Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabiae, under the patronage of Charles VII of Naples. At first a soldier and milit ...

(1712 in Arth – 1764) a Swiss architect and engineer who was in charge of the first organized excavations at Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabiae * Robbie Hunter (born 1977) a retired South African professional road racing cyclist who competed professionally between 1999 and 2013; now lives in Arth

Gallery

Arth_am_Zugersee.jpg, Arth Arth Kirche.JPG, Arth, Church CH-NB - Arth, von Nordwesten - Collection Gugelmann - GS-GUGE-ASCHMANN-C-1.tif, Arth about 1780

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Schwyz Populated places on Lake Zug