Dietikon is the fifth biggest city of the

canton of Zürich The canton of Zürich (german: Kanton Zürich ; rm, Chantun Turitg; french: Canton de Zurich; it, Canton Zurigo) is a Swiss canton in the northeastern part of the country. With a population of (as of ), it is the most populous canton in the ...

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 ...

, after

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 ...

Winterthur , neighboring_municipalities = Brütten, Dinhard, Elsau, Hettlingen, Illnau-Effretikon, Kyburg, Lindau, Neftenbach, Oberembrach, Pfungen, Rickenbach, Schlatt, Seuzach, Wiesendangen, Zell , twintowns = Hall in Tirol (Austria), La ...

, Uster and Dübendorf. It is the capital of the same-named district of Dietikon and part of the Zürich metropolitan area.

Geography

The industrial city Dietikon is situated at an elevation of at the confluence of the Reppisch and the

Limmat The Limmat is a river in Switzerland. The river commences at the outfall of Lake Zurich, in the southern part of the city of Zurich. From Zurich it flows in a northwesterly direction, after 35 km reaching the river Aare. The confluenc ...

, located in the Limmat Valley (German: ''Limmattal''), along the railway line from Zürich to Baden. Here and in the neighboring region, Spreitenbach, is also the large Limmattal rail freight marshalling yard. Dietikon has an area of . Of this area, 17.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 27% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 49.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (6.7%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). housing and buildings made up 33.8% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest (15.3%). Of the total unproductive area, water (streams and lakes) made up 4.9% of the area. 40.7% of the total municipal area was undergoing some type of construction. The largest and best known forests of the municipality include the Honeret, Guggenbüehl and Röhrenmoos. The Honeret forest lies on a side moraine of the Linth glacier ("Linthgletscher"). There are over 200 prominent stones through the woods, up to erratic boulders as big as . The Honeret and the Guggenbüehl-Wald are separated by only one main street. In the forest, there are a few springs from which the brooks Tobelbach and Stoffelbach rise and then flow down into the Reppisch. Also in the forest lies the forest cottage "Lorenzhütte." The Guggenbüehl forest lies wholly within Dietikon. Within the forest lies the "Giigelibode" pond. It has neither inflow nor outflow. A Vita course is in the forest.

Transportation

The municipality is located on the

A3 motorway This is a list of roads designated A3. Roads entries are sorted in the countries alphabetical order. * A003 road (Argentina), a road connecting the junction with National Route 9 and Camino de Cintura to Tigre * ''A3 road (Australia)'' may refer ...

Dietikon railway station Dietikon railway station is a railway station in Switzerland, situated in the canton of Zürich and the city of Dietikon. The station is located on the Swiss Federal Railway's Zürich to Olten main line and is also the terminus of the metre g ...

and

Glanzenberg railway station Glanzenberg is a railway station in Switzerland, situated in the city of Dietikon. The station is located on the Zürich–Baden railway, Zurich to Olten main line and is a stop of the Zurich S-Bahn served by line S11 (ZVV), S11 and S12 (ZVV), S12 ...

are stops of the S-Bahn Zürich on the lines S3 and S12. Dietikon railway station is also the terminus of the line S17 provided by the Bremgarten-Dietikon-Bahn. Between 1900 and 1928, Dietikon was the terminus of the

Limmattal tramway The Limmattal tramway (german: Limmattal-Strassenbahn, LSB) was a metre gauge electric tramway that operated in the Limmat Valley, situated in the Swiss canton of Zürich to the west of the city of Zürich. Because of the prominent display of ...

from Zürich. The, now under construction, Limmattal light rail line will follow a similar alignment, albeit extended through Dietikon to Killwangen.

Waters

Important running waters that flow through Dietikon are the Limmat and its tributary Reppisch. Wide brooks are the approximately long Schäflibach and the Teischlibach. The Schäflibach is created with the flows together from Allmendbach and Stockacherbach and leads into the Limmat. The Teischlibach originates from Röhrenmoos in the forest above Dietikon and also leads into the Limmat. The Marmoriweiher lies in the Grunschen a place used for gaming and grilling. The Marmoriweiher is an artificial pond, that was positioned for the water supply of the fire brigade. For this, a distraction canal was built with the Grunschen. Later, the pond of a marble factory served. This gave it its name.

History

Dietikon is first mentioned in 1100 as ''Dietinchovin''. In Dietikon there are several

Roman 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 letter ...

ruins and also the Fahr Benedictine Convent, given by the

House of Regensberg Regensberg was a family of counts from the Canton of Zürich in Switzerland. The family had possessions in the medieval Zürichgau from the probably mid-11th century and became extinct in 1331 AD. With the extinction of the male line, the city ...

around 1130 AD, with a

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

church dating from the years 1743 to 1746. The

Second Battle of Zürich The Second Battle of Zurich (25–26 September 1799) was a key victory by the Republican French army in Switzerland led by André Masséna over an Austrian and Russian force commanded by Alexander Korsakov near Zürich. It broke the stal ...

was fought in Dietikon (September 1799) and the town name is now inscribed at the pillar of the

Arc de Triomphe The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile (, , ; ) is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly named Place de l'Étoile—the ''étoile'' ...

in Paris, France.

Politics

City president is Roger Bachmann (SVP).

Demographics

Dietikon has a population (as of ) of . , 39.8% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. the gender distribution of the population was 50% male and 50% female. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 10.5%. Most of the population () speaks German (73.9%), with Italian being second most common (8.9%) and Albanian being third (3.8%). In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 40.1% 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 ...

(19.9%), the CVP (13.7%) and the FDP (8%). The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 64.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 14%. In Dietikon about 60.1% 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 ...

''). There are 9,892 households in Dietikon. Dietikon has an unemployment rate of 4.2%. , there were 179 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 13 businesses involved in this sector. 2,613 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 213 businesses in this sector. 10,632 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 957 businesses in this sector.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 05-Aug-2009 60.6% of the working population were employed full-time, and 39.4% were employed part-time.
accessed 4 August 2009 there were 8,655

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 4,599

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 Dietikon. In the , religion was broken down into several smaller categories. From the 2000 census, 26.5% were some type of Protestant, with 24.6% 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 1.9% belonging to other Protestant churches. 41.8% of the population were Catholic. Of the rest of the population, 12.2% were Muslim, 16.1% belonged to another religion (not listed), 4.6% did not give a religion, and 9.4% were atheist or agnostic. The historical population is given in the following table:

Economics and education

Among other companies, the ''

Limmattaler Zeitung ''Limmattaler Zeitung'', commonly shortened to ''Limmattaler'', is a Swiss German-language daily newspaper, published in Dietikon in the Limmat Valley. History and profile The newspaper was first published in 1972 as ''Limmattaler Tagblatt'' by ...

'' newspaper and ''

Ex Libris Ex Libris may refer to: *An Ex Libris (bookplate), a label affixed to a book to indicate ownership *Ex Libris (band), a Dutch metal band *Ex Libris (bookshop), a Swiss retail company * "Ex Libris" (''Charmed''), a 2000 episode of the television ser ...

'' are situated in Dietikon.

Weather

Dietikon has an average of 132.2 days of rain per year and on average receives of precipitation. The wettest month is August during which time Dietikon receives an average of of precipitation. During the wettest month, there is precipitation for an average of 12.7 days., the weather station elevation is 385 meters

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

Visitor attractions

There's the

Bruno Weber Park Bruno Weber Park is a sculpture park in the Swiss Municipalities of the canton of Zürich, municipalities Spreitenbach and Dietikon, and besides the Fahr Abbey one of the visitor attractions in the Limmat Valley. The sculpture garden is designed as ...

in Dietikon respectively Spreitenbach, one of the few sculpture gardens and ''Gesamtkunstwerk''s in Switzerland. ''

Glanzenberg Dietikon is the fifth biggest city of the canton of Zürich in Switzerland, after Zürich, Winterthur, Uster and Dübendorf. It is the capital of the same-named district of dietikon district, Dietikon and part of the Zürich metropolitan area. G ...

'' was once a settlement along the river

, but its fortifications seem to never have been completed, and it might have been destroyed in 1267/68, a legend tells. Its remains are to be found in a little forest along the Limmat, opposite the railway station of the same name. Also situated there are the walls of the former ''Glanzenberg'' castle, built in the late 12th century AD by the ''

Counts of Regensberg Regensberg is a municipality in the district of Dielsdorf in the canton of Zurich in Switzerland. It is located just to the west of Dielsdorf, on a ridge of the Lägern (). History Regensberg was founded as a hilltop fortified settlement abou ...

''.

Notable people

Bruno Weber Bruno Weber (10 April 1931 – 24 October 2011) was a Swiss artist and architect, specializing in fantastic realism. Biography Early life Bruno Weber was born in 1931 in Dietikon, Switzerland. In 1947, he completed college in Zürich und ...

(1931-2011) an artist and architect, specializing in

fantastic realism The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism (german: Wiener Schule des Phantastischen Realismus) is a group of artists founded in Vienna in 1946. It includes Ernst Fuchs, Maître Leherb (Helmut Leherb), Arik Brauer, Wolfgang Hutter and Anton Lehmd ...

* Peter Schweri (1939-2016) artist, painter, illustrator, photographer and music composer * Peter Vetsch (born 1943) an architect, known for building earth houses *

Urs Fischbacher Urs Fischbacher (born 17 September 1959 in Dietikon, Zürich) is a Swiss economist and professor of applied economic research at the University of Konstanz. He is director of the Thurgau Economic Institute, an affiliated institute of the University ...

(born 1959) an economist and professor of applied economic research at the

University of Konstanz The University of Konstanz (german: Universität Konstanz) is a university in the city of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its main campus was opened on the Gießberg in 1972 after being founded in 1966. The university is Germany's ...

* Markus Notter (born 1960) politician and former city president * Josef Wiederkehr (born 1970) a businessman and politician * Diamá (born 1980) also known as Claudia D'Addio, a singer, grew up in Dietikon

Twin towns

Dietikon is twinned with the towns of

Gallery

File:Dietikon - Zentralschulhaus IMG 6138 ShiftN.jpg, ''Zentralschulhaus'' building File:Dietikon - Zürcherstrasse IMG 6139 ShiftN.jpg, ''Zürcherstrasse'' towards Schlieren File:Dietiker und Geroldswiler Auen - Geroldswil IMG 6016.jpg, Protected area ''Dietiker & Geroldswiler Auen'' on the Limmat's shore File:Limmat - Dietikon IMG 5929.jpg, Hiking path at ''Glanzenberg'' train station File:RuineSchönenwerd02.JPG, Ruins of the ''Schönenwerd'' water castle File:arc-de-triomphe-dietikon.jpg, Dietikon as part of the inscription at the

in Paris referring to the

in 1799 File:2014 Bruno Weber Park ... hoffen wir auf Wiedereröffnung nach dem 20. Oktober 2014-10-17 15-11-26.JPG,

File:Earth house estate.JPG, Earth house estate Lättenstrasse by Peter Vetsch

References

External links

Official website
* {{Authority control Cities in Switzerland Municipalities of the canton of Zürich