Bösingen (; , formerly ''Bésingue''; ) is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
in the district of
Sense
A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the surroundings through the detection of Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. Although, in some cultures, five human senses were traditio ...
in the
canton of
Fribourg
or is the capital of the Cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Canton of Fribourg, Fribourg and district of Sarine (district), La Sarine. Located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss Plateau, it is a major economic, adminis ...
in
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
. It is one of the municipalities with a large majority of German speakers in the mostly French speaking Canton of Fribourg.
History
Bösingen is first mentioned in 1228 as ''Basens''. The municipality was formerly known by its French name ''Bésingue'', however, that name is no longer used. Between 1953–62 it was known as ''Grossbösingen''.
[
]
Geography
Bösingen has an area of . Of this area, or 75.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 14.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 9.3% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 5.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.4%. Out of the forested land, 13.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 53.7% is used for growing crops and 20.2% is pastures, while 1.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.[
The municipality is located in the Sense district. It consists of the ''haufendorf'' village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Bösingen and the widely scattered ]hamlets
A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...
of Fendringen, Friseneit, Grenchen, Litzistorf, Niederbösingen, Noflen, Lischera, Richterwil, Riederberg, Uttewil and Vogelshus.
Coat of arms
The blazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...
of the municipal coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...
is ''Per fess Or a Horse Head Sable issuant langued Gules and Gules between two Escallops a Harrow all Or.''
Demographics
Bösingen has a population () of . , 7.4% 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 6.2%. Migration accounted for 3.8%, while births and deaths accounted for 2.7%.
accessed 16-December-2011German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
(2,887 or 92.6%) as their first language, Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
is the second most common (54 or 1.7%) and French is the third (44 or 1.4%). There are 2 people who speak Romansh.[
, the population was 50.4% male and 49.6% female. The population was made up of 1,495 Swiss men (45.7% of the population) and 156 (4.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,520 Swiss women (46.4%) and 103 (3.1%) non-Swiss women.][Canton of Fribourg Statistics]
accessed 3 November 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 1,097 or about 35.2% were born in Bösingen and lived there in 2000. There were 514 or 16.5% who were born in the same canton, while 1,165 or 37.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 272 or 8.7% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 29.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 8.4%.][
, there were 1,351 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,566 married individuals, 121 widows or widowers and 79 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 1,128 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household.[ There were 220 households that consist of only one person and 108 households with five or more people. , a total of 1,101 apartments (93.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 48 apartments (4.1%) were seasonally occupied and 31 apartments (2.6%) 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 5.2 new units per 1000 residents.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.83%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Heritage sites of national significance
The Gallo-Roman
Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization (cultural), Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire in Roman Gaul. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, Roman culture, language ...
complex, and the Vogelshus country estate are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire village of Bösingen and the hamlet of Richterwil are both part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.
Sites of national importance
Types
The types are based on t ...
.
Politics
In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 21.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (20.9%), the CVP (19.8%) and the FDP (8.5%).[Canton of Fribourg National Council Election of 23 October 2011 Statistics]
accessed 3 November 2011
The SVP improved their position in Bösingen rising to first, from second in 2007 (with 22.3%) The SPS moved from third in 2007 (with 16.6%) to second in 2011, the CVP moved from first in 2007 (with 25.4%) to third and the FDP moved from below fourth place in 2007 to fourth. A total of 1,247 votes were cast in this election, of which 12 or 1.0% were invalid.
Economy
, Bösingen had an unemployment rate of 1.6%. , there were 140 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 44 businesses involved in this sector. 376 people were 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 constructi ...
and there were 44 businesses in this sector. 407 people were 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 ...
, with 81 businesses in this sector.[ There were 1,670 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 39.7% of the workforce.
the total number of ]full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often use ...
jobs was 788. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 93, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 356 of which 215 or (60.4%) were in manufacturing and 141 (39.6%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 339. In the tertiary sector; 143 or 42.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 11 or 3.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 19 or 5.6% were in a hotel or restaurant, 37 or 10.9% were in the information industry, 15 or 4.4% were the insurance or financial industry, 48 or 14.2% were technical professionals or scientists, 21 or 6.2% were in education and 11 or 3.2% were in health care.
, there were 505 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,240 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.5 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 18% used public transportation to get to work, and 59.3% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 1,650 or 52.9% were Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
, while 1,039 or 33.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 17 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.55% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.06% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 172 individuals (or about 5.52% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 32 (or about 1.03% of the population) who were Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
ic. There were 6 individuals who were Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
, 9 individuals who were Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
and 4 individuals who belonged to another church. 216 (or about 6.93% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...
or 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 54 individuals (or about 1.73% of the population) did not answer the question.[
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Education
In Bösingen about 1,252 or (40.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 346 or (11.1%) have completed additional higher education (either university
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
or a ''Fachhochschule
A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...
''). Of the 346 who completed tertiary schooling, 75.4% were Swiss men, 17.3% were Swiss women, 5.2% were non-Swiss men and 2.0% were non-Swiss women.[
The Canton of Fribourg school system provides one year of non-obligatory ]Kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...
, followed by six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend a three or four year optional upper Secondary school. The upper Secondary school is divided into gymnasium (university preparatory) and vocational programs. After they finish the upper Secondary program, students may choose to attend a Tertiary school or continue their apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...
.Chart of the education system in Canton Fribourg
During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 243 students attending 13 classes in Bösingen. A total of 480 students from the municipality attended any school, either in the municipality or outside of it. There were 3 kindergarten classes with a total of 53 students in the municipality. The municipality had 10 primary classes and 190 students. During the same year, there were no lower secondary classes in the municipality, but 133 students attended lower secondary school in a neighboring municipality. There were no upper Secondary classes or vocational classes, but there were 52 upper Secondary students and 43 upper Secondary vocational students who attended classes in another municipality. The municipality had no non-university Tertiary classes, but there were 3 non-university Tertiary students and 7 specialized Tertiary students who attended classes in another municipality.[
]
Notable people
* Heinrich Schnyder (1897–1974), agronomist and politician
* Oliver Schaller (*1994), badminton player
* Yannik Zechner (*2005), songwriter
References
External links
Official website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bosingen
Municipalities of the canton of Fribourg
Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Fribourg