Hergiswil is 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

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ent ...

Nidwalden Nidwalden, also Nidwald (german: Kanton Nidwalden, ; rm, Chantun Sutsilvania; french: Canton de Nidwald; it, Canton Nidvaldo) is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven municipalities and the seat of 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 ...

History

Hergiswil is first mentioned around 1303-09 as ''ze Hergenswile''.

Geography

Hergiswil has an area, , of . Of this area, 29.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 44.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 9.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (16.6%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). The municipality is located between the foot of Mount

Pilatus Pilatus may refer to: People * Pontius Pilate (Latin: Pontius Pilatus, died 39 AD), Roman governor of Judea * Leontius Pilatus (died 1366), Greek Calabrian scholar * Rob Pilatus (1965–1998), artist and member of group Milli Vanilli Other uses * ...

and

Lake Lucerne __NOTOC__ Lake Lucerne (german: Vierwaldstättersee, literally "Lake of the four forested settlements" (in English usually translated as ''forest cantons''), french: lac des Quatre-Cantons, it, lago dei Quattro Cantoni) is a lake in central ...

Demographics

Hergiswil has a population (as of ) of . , 14.5% of the population was made up of foreign nationals.Nidwalden Statistical Office-Population
accessed 4 September 2009 Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 11.5%. Most of the population () speaks German (91.0%), with Italian being second most common ( 2.0%) and French being third ( 1.1%).
accessed 04-Sep-2009 the gender distribution of the population was 52.2% male and 47.8% female. there are 2,216 households, of which 1,627 households (or about 73.4%) contain only one or two individuals. 91 or about 4.1% are large households, with at least five members.Nidwalden Statistical Office-Municipalities
accessed 4 September 2009 In the

2007 federal election This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not i ...

the most popular party was the FDP which received 89.1% of the vote. Most of the rest of the votes went to local small right-wing parties (9.3%). In Hergiswil about 77.7% 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 ...

''). Hergiswil has an unemployment rate of 1.24%. , there were 89 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 35 businesses involved in this sector. 666 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 72 businesses in this sector. 2,091 people are 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 second ...

, with 382 businesses in this sector. The historical population is given in the following table:

Transport

Hergiswil is served by Hergiswil station and Hergiswil Matt station on the

Brünig railway line The Brünig railway line (german: Brünigbahn) is a Swiss narrow gauge railway line that links Lucerne, in central Switzerland, with Interlaken, in the Bernese Oberland. The line runs via Alpnachstad, Giswil, Meiringen and Brienz, and passes ov ...

, and the linked Luzern–Stans–Engelberg line. The

Lucerne S-Bahn The Lucerne S-Bahn (german: S-Bahn Luzern) is an S-Bahn-style commuter rail network focusing on Lucerne, Switzerland. Opened on 12 December 2004, the network forms part of the Central Switzerland S-Bahn project (german: S-Bahn Zentralschweiz, link ...

services S4 and S5 combine to provide four trains per hour at each station. Hergiswil station is also served by hourly InterRegio trains between

Lucerne Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking po ...

and

Interlaken , neighboring_municipalities= Bönigen, Därligen, Matten bei Interlaken, Ringgenberg, Unterseen , twintowns = Scottsdale (USA), Ōtsu (Japan), Třeboň (Czech Republic) Interlaken (; lit.: ''between lakes'') is a Swiss town and mun ...

, and between Lucerne and Engelberg.

Sights

The main sights of Hergiswil are: an old clergy house, the church, the chapel ''Maria zum guten Rat'', old mansion ''Thumigerhaus'', and a

glazier A glazier is a tradesman responsible for cutting, installing, and removing glass (and materials used as substitutes for glass, such as some plastics).Elizabeth H. Oakes, ''Ferguson Career Resource Guide to Apprenticeship Programs'' ( Infobase: ...

's workshop with museum. The workshop was established in 1817, burning down on one occasion, but is still working.

References

External links

Official Homepage of HergiswilOfficial Homepage of the Glasi in HergiswilGlasi Ecuador site
{{Authority control Municipalities of Nidwalden Populated places on Lake Lucerne