Koblenz (or Coblenz) is a town and

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 Zurzach in the

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative divisions * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and entertainment * Canton (band), an It ...

Aargau Aargau ( ; ), more formally the Canton of Aargau (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capital is Aarau. Aargau is one of the most nort ...

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 ...

History

Middle Ages

Koblenz is first mentioned in 10th or 11th Century as ''Confluentia'', for the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

of the

Aare The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to i ...

and

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

rivers. In 1265 it was mentioned as ''Cobilz''. In the

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

a goods yard and watchtowers existed along the Rhine at this place. The remaining late Roman watchtower is listed as a heritage site of national significance. The town has been settled since the

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

. The Koblenz boatmen had a

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

over transport of goods from the then important market town of

Zurzach Zurzach () is a municipality in the district of Zurzach in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the sou ...

downstream along dangerous currents of the Rhine towards

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

19th Century

With the arrival of the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

in the 19th century Koblenz and Zurzach lost this important source of income.

Geography

Koblenz has an area, , of . Of this area, or 41.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 29.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 19.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 8.8% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.5% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.7% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 9.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 7.8%. Out of the forested land, 26.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 35.5% is used for growing crops and 5.6% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, and . The municipality is located in the Zurzach district, between the Aare and Rhine rivers. It lies opposite Waldshut in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It consists of the ''haufendorf'' village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Koblenz. The village of Koblenz is known locally as the "Vier-Brücken-Dorf" (literally: village of four bridges). Two road and railway bridges each cross the Aar and the Rhine. The like-named town

Koblenz Koblenz ( , , ; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz'') is a German city on the banks of the Rhine (Middle Rhine) and the Moselle, a multinational tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman military p ...

also lies on a confluence of the Rhine, with the river Mosel in Germany.

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 ''Or a Bar wavy Azure in chief a boat with an oar Sable and in base a bendlet wavy of the second.''

Demographics

Koblenz has a population () of . , 29.7% of the population are foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of -0.3%. Most of the population () speaks

German 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 ...

(82.4%), with

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

being second most common ( 4.3%) and

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...

being third ( 3.7%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 19-June-2010 , the gender distribution of the population was 53.9% male and 46.1% female. The population was made up of 544 Swiss men (34.6% of the population), and 304 (19.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 470 Swiss women (29.9%), and 256 (16.3%) non-Swiss women. In there were 8 live births to Swiss citizens and 11 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 14 deaths of Swiss citizens and 3 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 6 while the foreign population increased by 8. There were 22 non-Swiss men who emigrated from Switzerland to another country and 14 non-Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland to another country. The total Swiss population change in 2008 was a decrease of 26 and the non-Swiss population change was an increase of 35 people. This represents a

population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 70 million annu ...

of 0.6%. The age distribution, , in Koblenz is; 142 children or 9.0% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 218 teenagers or 13.8% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 203 people or 12.8% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 195 people or 12.3% are between 30 and 39, 302 people or 19.1% are between 40 and 49, and 200 people or 12.6% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 151 people or 9.5% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 123 people or 7.8% are between 70 and 79, there are 44 people or 2.8% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 6 people or 0.4% who are 90 and older.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau -Bevölkerungsdaten für den Kanton Aargau und die Gemeinden (Archiv)
accessed 20 January 2010 the average number of residents per living room was 0.6 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.57 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 43% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a

mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners t ...

or a

rent-to-own Rent-to-own, also known as rental purchase or rent-to-buy, is a type of legally documented transaction under which tangible property, such as furniture, consumer electronics, motor vehicles, home appliances, engagement rings, and real property, ...

agreement). , there were 53 homes with 1 or 2 persons in the household, 329 homes with 3 or 4 persons in the household, and 204 homes with 5 or more persons in the household. , there were 607 private households (homes and apartments) in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. there were 264 single family homes (or 39.5% of the total) out of a total of 669 homes and apartments.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau
accessed 20 January 2010 There were a total of 9 empty apartments for a 1.3% vacancy rate. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.6 new units per 1000 residents. In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 44.84% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (21.39%), the CVP (15.01%) and the FDP (8.83%). In the federal election, a total of 386 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 is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

was 44.7%. The historical population is given in the following table:

Heritage sites of national significance

The

Koblenz Aar railway bridge The Koblenz Aare railway bridge, also known as the Koblenz–Felsenau railway bridge or the ''Aarebrücke Koblenz'', is a single-track railway bridge which carries the Koblenz to Stein-Säckingen line across the River Aare in Switzerland. The b ...

(shared with

Leuggern Leuggern is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Zurzach (district), Zurzach in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau in Switzerland. History The remains of a Switzerland in the Roman era, Roman era Rhine forti ...

), the Koblenz–Waldshut Rhine railway bridge and the ''Kleiner Laufen'', a watchtower remnant of the Roman Rhine border fortifications are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance. File:Brücke Koblenz 02.jpg, Koblenz-Waldhut bridge File:SBB Aarebruecke Koblenz (AG) 06 09.jpg, Koblenz-Felsenau bridge

Economy

, Koblenz had an unemployment rate of 2.57%. , there were 16 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 5 businesses involved in this sector. 367 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 constructi ...

and there are 23 businesses in this sector. 230 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 ...

, with 47 businesses in this sector. there were 821 workers who lived in the municipality. Of these, 624 or about 76.0% of the residents worked outside Koblenz while 369 people commuted into the municipality for work. There were a total of 566 jobs (of at least 6 hours per week) in the municipality. Of the working population, 14.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 51% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 720 or 44.7% 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 446 or 27.7% 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 7 individuals (or about 0.43% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic faith.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau - Aargauer Zahlen 2009
accessed 20 January 2010

Education

The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Koblenz about 63.6% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory

upper secondary education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...

or additional higher education (either university 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 school age population (), there are 121 students attending

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

in the municipality.

Transport

Koblenz is served by two railway stations. Koblenz station is served by

Zurich S-Bahn The Zurich S-Bahn () system is a network of rail lines that has been incrementally expanded to cover the ZVV area, which comprises the entire canton of Zurich and portions of neighbouring cantons (Aargau, Glarus, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, ...

line S36, which links

Bülach Bülach () is a historic town and a municipality in Switzerland in the canton of Zürich. It is the administrative capital of Bülach district. It is situated in the Glatt Valley (German: ''Glattal'') to the east of the small river Glatt and ab ...

and Waldshut, and

Aargau S-Bahn The Aargau S-Bahn ( or ) is an S-Bahn-style regional rail network serving the canton of Aargau, Switzerland, with some services extending into the cantons of Bern, Lucerne, Solothurn and Zug and one service to the German city of Waldshut-Tiengen ...

line S27, which links

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

and Koblenz, with alternate trains continuing to either Waldshut or

Bad Zurzach Bad Zurzach is a village and former municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Zurzach (district), Zurzach in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. It is the seat of the district. On 1 January 2022 the former municipalities of Ba ...

. Koblenz Dorf station is situated rather closer to the village centre, but is served by fewer trains.

References

External links

Official municipality website
{{Authority control Municipalities of Aargau Populated places on the Rhine Cultural property of national significance in Aargau Germany–Switzerland border crossings Populated places on the Aare