Fideris ''( Romansh: Fadrein)'' is a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

village in the

Prättigau The Prättigau, in the canton of Graubünden (Grisons), Switzerland, is the geographical region consisting of the main valley of the river Landquart (river), Landquart and the valleys of its side-rivers and creeks. Landquart River, which drains in ...

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 ...

in the political district

Prättigau/Davos Region Prättigau/Davos Region is one of the eleven administrative districts in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. It had an area of and a population of (as of ).. It was created on 1 January 2017 as part of a reorganization of the Canton repl ...

in the canton of Graubünden.

History

Fideris is first mentioned in 1370 as ''Fidris''.

Geography

Fideris has an area, (as of the 2004/09 survey) of . Of this area, about 58.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 28.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 3.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and 9.4% is unproductive land. In the 2004/09 survey a total of or about 1.3% of the total area was covered with buildings. Of the agricultural land, is fields and grasslands and consists of alpine grazing areas. Since 1985 the amount of agricultural land has decreased by . Over the same time period the amount of forested land has increased by . Rivers and lakes cover in the municipality.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Regional portraits
accessed 27 October 2016 Before 2017, the municipality was located in the Jenaz sub-district of the Prättigau/Davos district, after 2017 it was part of the Prättigau/Davos Region. It is a cross shaped

linear village Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship (''function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear r ...

which lies on the Prättigau-Schanfigg route. It consists of the village of Fideris which is made up of the sections of Strahlegg and Fideris-Au. In 1994, devotees of the

Skanda Vale Skanda Vale is a non-denominational spiritual centre and monastery located in Carmarthenshire, Wales, near the village of Llanpumsaint. Founded in 1973 by Guru Sri Subramanium, the monastery is inhabited and run by the Community of the Many Names ...

spiritual community in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

bought a chalet near Fideris, and in 2016 this was inaugurated as a temple in its own right, now called Somaskanda Ashram. This temple draws pilgrims and devotees from across Europe.

Demographics

Fideris has a population () of . , 7.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 4 years (2010-2014) the population has changed at a rate of -4.24%. The

birth rate The birth rate for a given period is the total number of live human births per 1,000 population divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registration system for births; populati ...

in the municipality, in 2014, was 8.5, while the

death rate Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of de ...

was 5.1 per thousand residents. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) are 60.3% of the population and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 20.3%. In 2015 there were 259 single residents, 270 people who were married or in a civil partnership, 42 widows or widowers and 29 divorced residents. In 2014 there were 243 private households in Fideris with an average household size of 2.36 persons. Of the 210 inhabited buildings in the municipality, in 2000, about 62.9% were single family homes and 15.2% were multiple family buildings. Additionally, about 42.9% of the buildings were built before 1919, while 11.4% were built between 1991 and 2000.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Thema 09 - Bau- und Wohnungswesen
accessed 5 May 2016 In 2013 the rate of construction of new housing units per 1000 residents was 3.43. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.59%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:40 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:700 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:100 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:20 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:460 text:"460" bar:1860 from:start till:437 text:"437" bar:1870 from:start till:369 text:"369" bar:1880 from:start till:398 text:"398" bar:1888 from:start till:405 text:"405" bar:1900 from:start till:363 text:"363" bar:1910 from:start till:354 text:"354" bar:1920 from:start till:407 text:"407" bar:1930 from:start till:406 text:"406" bar:1941 from:start till:480 text:"480" bar:1950 from:start till:524 text:"524" bar:1960 from:start till:549 text:"549" bar:1970 from:start till:554 text:"554" bar:1980 from:start till:492 text:"492" bar:1990 from:start till:586 text:"586" bar:2000 from:start till:586 text:"586" bar:2010 from:start till:613 text:"613" bar:2014 from:start till:587 text:"587"

Languages

Most of the population () speaks German (96.4%), with Portuguese being second most common ( 1.2%) and Romansh being third ( 0.7%). In the early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

the entire population spoke Romansh. However, in the 14th Century the

Walser The Walser people are the speakers of the Walser German dialects, a variety of Highest Alemannic. They inhabit the region of the Alps of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as the fringes of Italy and Austria. The Walser people are named af ...

migration brought

Walser German Walser German (german: Walserdeutsch) and Walliser German (, locally ) are a group of Highest Alemannic dialects spoken in parts of Switzerland (Valais, Ticino, Grisons), Italy (Piedmont, Aosta Valley), Liechtenstein (Triesenberg, Planken), an ...

speaking

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

s to the valley. By the time of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

the majority of the inhabitants of the village spoke German.

Politics

In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the SVP with 32.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (18.1%), the BDP (16.8%) and the SP (15.5%). In the federal election, a total of 203 votes were cast, and the

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Unive ...

was 42.6%. The 2015 election saw a large change in the voting when compared to 2011. The percentage of the vote received by the FDP increased sharply from 10.4% in 2011 to 18.1% in 2015, while the percentage that the BDP dropped from 26.5% to 16.8%. In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 39.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (38.7%), the SP (15%) and the CVP (3.3%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 28-Oct-2009

Education

In Fideris about 72.1% 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 ...

'').

Economy

Fideris is a mixed agro-industrial community, a municipality where agriculture and manufacturing play a significant role in the economy. , there were a total of 232 people employed in the municipality. Of these, 56 people worked in 19 businesses in the primary economic sector. 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. ...

employed 68 workers in 18 separate businesses. Finally, 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 ...

provided 108 jobs in 27 businesses. There was one small business with a total of 43 employees. In 2014 a total of 3.4% of the population received social assistance. In 2011 the unemployment rate in the municipality was 0.5%. In 2015 the average cantonal, municipal and church tax rate in the municipality for a couple with two children making was 4% while the rate for a single person making was 17.2%. In 2013 the average income in the municipality per tax payer was and the per person average was , which is less than the cantonal average of and respectively It is also less than the national per tax payer average of and the per person average of .

Transportation

The municipality has a railway station, , on the Landquart–Davos Platz line. It has limited service to and .

Heritage sites of national significance

The ''Türmlihaus'' and ''House Nr. 41'' are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance. The historical American

Van Leer family The Van Leer family, originally spelled Von Lohr, is an influential German-American family that emigrated to the Province of Pennsylvania in the 17th century from the Electorate of Hesse near Isenberg, Germany. The family made their fortune in the U ...

claims linage from this area through Swiss archives.

References

External links

Official Web site
{{Authority control Municipalities of Graubünden Cultural property of national significance in Graubünden