Bevaix

Bevaix is a former municipality in the district of Boudry in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. On 1 January 2018 the former municipalities of Bevaix, Saint-Aubin-Sauges, Gorgier, Vaumarcus, Montalchez and Fresens merged into the new municipality of La Grande-Béroche.

History

Bevaix is first mentioned in 998 as ''in villa Bevacensi''. In 1139 it was mentioned as ''Betuaci''.

The village of Bevaix is sited in front of a small plateau, near Lake Neuchâtel, on a location showing both Bronze Age and Neolithic settlement and a priory dating to 998. Discovery nearby of several dugout canoes and boats illuminated techniques of shipbuilding in Gallo-Roman times. The village was predominantly agricultural until the building of a railway station in 1860, and the drainage of the surrounding wetlands around 1900, when the area became increasingly residential. Local industry focuses on microtechnology.

Geography

Bevaix has an area, , of . Of this area, or 34.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 47.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 18.3% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.7% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 10.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.3%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.3% of the area Out of the forested land, 45.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 18.7% is used for growing crops and 8.2% is pastures, while 5.8% is used for orchards or vine crops and 1.4% is used for alpine pastures.

The municipality is located in the Boudry district, on a small, marshy plateau near Lake Neuchâtel.

The proposed merger of the municipalities of Bevaix, Boudry and Cortaillod was rejected by the residents.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 17 February 2011

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is ''Impalled, Azure a Fish haurient Argent and a Bar Or, and Gules, a Fountain Argent and in chief two Mullets of Five of the same.''

Demographics

Bevaix has a population () of . , 16.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 7.8%. It has changed at a rate of 4.2% due to migration and at a rate of 1.5% due to births and deaths.
accessed 18-October-2011

Most of the population () speaks French (3,120 or 86.6%) as their first language, German is the second most common (183 or 5.1%) and Italian is the third (86 or 2.4%). There are 5 people who speak Romansh.

, the population was 50.0% male and 50.0% female. The population was made up of 1,583 Swiss men (41.3% of the population) and 335 (8.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,649 Swiss women (43.0%) and 269 (7.0%) non-Swiss women.Canton of Neuchatel Statistics
''République et canton de Neuchâtel - Recensement annuel de la population'' accessed 13 October 2011

Of the population in the municipality, 767 or about 21.3% were born in Bevaix and lived there in 2000. There were 1,147 or 31.8% who were born in the same canton, while 836 or 23.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 741 or 20.6% were born outside of Switzerland.

, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.3%. , there were 1,365 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,828 married individuals, 218 widows or widowers and 192 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011

, there were 1,443 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 401 households that consist of only one person and 78 households with five or more people. , a total of 1,399 apartments (91.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 96 apartments (6.3%) were seasonally occupied and 29 apartments (1.9%) 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 0.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.35%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

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bar:1559 at:154 fontsize:S text: " 36 Hearths" shift:(8,5)
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bar:1850 from:start till:740 text:"740"
bar:1860 from:start till:782 text:"782"
bar:1870 from:start till:816 text:"816"
bar:1880 from:start till:881 text:"881"
bar:1888 from:start till:880 text:"880"
bar:1900 from:start till:1074 text:"1,074"
bar:1910 from:start till:1108 text:"1,108"
bar:1920 from:start till:1204 text:"1,204"
bar:1930 from:start till:1216 text:"1,216"
bar:1941 from:start till:1242 text:"1,242"
bar:1950 from:start till:1217 text:"1,217"
bar:1960 from:start till:1407 text:"1,407"
bar:1970 from:start till:1945 text:"1,945"
bar:1980 from:start till:2601 text:"2,601"
bar:1990 from:start till:3375 text:"3,375"
bar:2000 from:start till:3603 text:"3,603"

Heritage sites of national significance

The prehistoric lake shore settlement at Baie De Bevaix and the neolithic funerary and cultural center of Treytel-A Sugiez are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance.

World heritage site

It is home to the L’Abbaye 2 site, a prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements 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
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L'Abbaye 2 is a Bronze Age submerged site located near the L'Abbaye 1 Neolithic site. The former village at L'Abbaye 2 is about from the lake shore and consisted of a number of stilt houses. It has been dendrochronologically dated to 1040-986 BC. The village site covers an area of about and was probably connected to the shore by a foot bridge. About 400 Bronze Age objects have been discovered in the water around the village.

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 24.74% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (21.95%), the FDP (16.07%) and the LPS Party (15.58%). In the federal election, a total of 1,286 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 52.2%.

Economy

, Bevaix had an unemployment rate of 3.8%. , there were 65 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 22 businesses involved in this sector. 443 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 52 businesses in this sector. 629 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 99 businesses in this sector. There were 1,788 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.0% of the workforce.

the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 924. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 42, of which 36 were in agriculture, 5 were in forestry or lumber production and 1 was in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 417 of which 339 or (81.3%) were in manufacturing and 79 (18.9%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 465. In the tertiary sector; 120 or 25.8% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 12 or 2.6% were in the movement and storage of goods, 42 or 9.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 33 or 7.1% were in the information industry, 3 or 0.6% were the insurance or financial industry, 26 or 5.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 22 or 4.7% were in education and 117 or 25.2% were in health care.

, there were 660 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,295 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 2.7% of the workforce coming into Bevaix are coming from outside Switzerland.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 10.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 67.2% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 1,069 or 29.7% were Roman Catholic, while 1,490 or 41.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 42 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.17% of the population), there were 5 individuals (or about 0.14% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 131 individuals (or about 3.64% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 6 individuals (or about 0.17% of the population) who were Jewish, and 51 (or about 1.42% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 726 (or about 20.15% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 142 individuals (or about 3.94% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Bevaix about 1,351 or (37.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 540 or (15.0%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a ''Fachhochschule''). Of the 540 who completed tertiary schooling, 55.2% were Swiss men, 26.3% were Swiss women, 12.6% were non-Swiss men and 5.9% were non-Swiss women.

In the canton of Neuchâtel most municipalities provide two years of non-mandatory kindergarten, followed by five years of mandatory primary education. The next four years of mandatory secondary education is provided at thirteen larger secondary schools, which many students travel out of their home municipality to attend. During the 2010-11 school year, there were 5 kindergarten classes with a total of 86 students in Bevaix. In the same year, there were 13 primary classes with a total of 257 students.Statistical Department of the Canton of Neuchâtel
Mémento de l'année scolaire 2010/2011 accessed 17 October 2011

, there were 26 students in Bevaix who came from another municipality, while 345 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

See also

* Bevaix boat, a Gallo-Roman shipwreck at the Lake of Neuchatel

References

External links

*

{{Authority control

Former municipalities of the canton of Neuchâtel
Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Neuchâtel