Fischenthal is a village 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 district of
Hinwil
Hinwil is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Hinwil (district), Hinwil in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zurich (canton), Zürich in Switzerland.
History
The village Hinwil from which the later municipality ...
in the
canton of
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 ...
in
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 ...
. Besides the village of Fischenthal, it includes the villages of Gibswil and Steg, as well as nearly 100 smaller settlements.
History
Fischenthal is first mentioned in 878 as ''Fiskinestal''.
[
]
Geography
Fischenthal is situated in the upper Töss Valley The Töss Valley (German: ''Tösstal'') is a valley and a region of the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.
Geography
The valley embraces parts of the Zürcher Oberland including the districts of Hinwil, Pfäffikon and Winterthur, in addition ...
and is the largest municipality, in terms of land area, in the canton of Zurich. The Jona river
The Jona is a river in the Swiss cantons of Zürich and St. Gallen.
Geography
The Jona rises on the eastern slope of Bachtel hill near Gibswil and Fischenthal in the Zürcher Oberland. Passing an impressive waterfall, the river flows near th ...
rises near the municipality. The municipality includes the mountain villages of Fischenthal, Gibswil and Steg as well as nearly 100 settlements scattered throughout the ''Tössbergland'' (Töss mountain land). Gibswil is known for the ski jumping
Ski jumping is a winter sport in which competitors aim to achieve the farthest jump after sliding down on their skis from a specially designed curved ramp. Along with jump length, competitor's aerial style and other factors also affect the final ...
hill Bachtelblick-Schanze
The Bachtelblick-Schanze is a ski jumping hill in the town of Gibswil, close to Fischenthal, Switzerland. It was built in 2005-06 and was opened in late 2006. In the summer it is covered with plastic matting. Close to this hill there is also a K2 ...
and the cross-country skiing trail
A cross-country skiing trail or ''loipe''From german: Loipe or ''Langlaufloipe'', pl. –''n'', ''loipe'' is a loanword in English-language travel guides, referring to cross-country ski trails in Europe. It is a Germanization of the Norwegian word, ...
Panoramaloipe Gibswil.
Fischenthal has an area of . Of this area, 31.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 63.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 4% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (1.3%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).[ housing and buildings made up 2% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest (2%).][ Of the total unproductive area, water (streams and lakes) made up 0.6% of the area. 2.9% of the total municipal area was undergoing some type of construction.][
]
Demographics
Fischenthal has a population (as of ) of . with 11.8% foreign nationals. The gender distribution of the population was 51.2% male and 48.8% female.
In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 52.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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 ...
(12.1%), the Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...
(8.9%) and the CSP (8.3%).
The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 31.1% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 57.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 11.8%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Fischenthal about 70.9% 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 ...
''). There are 743 households in Fischenthal.[
As of 2005, Fischenthal had an unemployment rate of 2.19%.][Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 06-Aug-2009 28.8% of the working population were employed full-time, and 71.3% were employed part-time.
accessed 4 August 2009
In 2014, Fischenthal made regional news because it was forced to spend 87% of its fiscal budget on social support, mostly due to a single family which had recently moved to the village and which consumed a quarter of the municipality's budget or half a million francs in support and special education programs.
there were 476 Catholics
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and 1278 Protestants
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
in Fischenthal. In the , religion was broken down into several smaller categories. From the 2000 census, 60.5% were some type of Protestant, with 56.8% belonging 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 ...
and 3.7% belonging to other Protestant churches. 20.8% of the population were Catholic. Of the rest of the population, 0% were Muslim, 3.5% belonged to another religion (not listed), 4.6% did not give a religion, and 10.2% were atheist or agnostic.[
The historical population is given in the following table:]
Transport
Road 16, the ''Tösstalstrasse'', passes through the municipalities three main villages of Steg, Fischenthal and Gibswil.
The road is paralleled by the Tösstal railway line, and the municipality is served by Steg station, Fischenthal station and Gibswil station. All three stations are stops on the Zurich S-Bahn service S26.
The closest airport
An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...
is the Wangen Airport approximately 12 km from Gibswil.
References
External links
*
*
Gibswil
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of Zürich