Mase, Switzerland

Mase is a former municipality in the district of Hérens in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2011, the former municipalities of Vernamiège, Nax and Mase merged in the new municipality of Mont-Noble.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 19 July 2011

History

Mase is first mentioned about 1100 as ''villa Magis''. Until 1902 it was known as ''Mage''.

Geography

Mase has an area, , of . Of this area, or 36.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 45.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 3.7% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes and or 13.9% is unproductive land.
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.7%. Out of the forested land, 40.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.1% is used for growing crops and 6.9% is pastures and 29.4% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the village is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 7.5% is unproductive vegetation and 6.4% is too rocky for vegetation.

The village is located in the Hérens district on the right bank of the Borgne and the left bank of the Rhone in the Val d'Hérens at an elevation of . It consists of the village of Mase.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the village coat of arms is ''Azure, issuant from Coupeaux Vert a Pine Tree Vert trunked proper and a Chamois statant Argent, in chief two Mullets of the last.''

Demographics

Mase has a population () of 215.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 08-September-2011

Most of the population () speaks French (187 or 90.3%) as their first language, German is the second most common (13 or 6.3%) and Italian is the third (3 or 1.4%).

, the gender distribution of the population was 47.7% male and 52.3% female. The population was made up of 108 Swiss men (46.0% of the population) and 4 (1.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 114 Swiss women (48.5%) and 9 (3.8%) non-Swiss women.Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the village 120 or about 58.0% were born in Mase and lived there in 2000. There were 37 or 17.9% who were born in the same canton, while 24 or 11.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 16 or 7.7% were born outside of Switzerland.

, there were 73 people who were single and never married in the village. There were 107 married individuals, 20 widows or widowers and 7 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011

There were 34 households that consist of only one person and 4 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 99 households that answered this question, 34.3% were households made up of just one person and there were 3 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 30 married couples without children, 23 married couples with children There were 3 single parents with a child or children. There were 5 households that were made up of unrelated people and 1 household that was made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 219 single family homes (or 81.7% of the total) out of a total of 268 inhabited buildings. There were 33 multi-family buildings (12.3%), along with 6 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (2.2%) and 10 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (3.7%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011

, a total of 92 apartments (28.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 209 apartments (65.1%) were seasonally occupied and 20 apartments (6.2%) were empty.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

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bar:1880 from:start till:355 text:"355"
bar:1888 from:start till:354 text:"354"
bar:1900 from:start till:359 text:"359"
bar:1910 from:start till:370 text:"370"
bar:1920 from:start till:385 text:"385"
bar:1930 from:start till:337 text:"337"
bar:1941 from:start till:360 text:"360"
bar:1950 from:start till:347 text:"347"
bar:1960 from:start till:278 text:"278"
bar:1970 from:start till:236 text:"236"
bar:1980 from:start till:219 text:"219"
bar:1990 from:start till:229 text:"229"
bar:2000 from:start till:207 text:"207"

Sights

The entire village of Mase is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 41.05% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (21.53%), the SVP (16.98%) and the FDP (13.35%). In the federal election, a total of 162 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 78.6%.

In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 124 votes were cast, of which 8 or about 6.5% were invalid. The voter participation was 67.0%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 156 votes were cast, of which 4 or about 2.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 81.3%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

There were 83 residents of the village who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 39.8% of the workforce.

the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 36. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 4, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 14, all of which were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 18 of which 13 or 72.2% were in a hotel or restaurant.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
accessed 28 January 2011

, there were 7 workers who commuted into the village and 61 workers who commuted away. The village is a net exporter of workers, with about 8.7 workers leaving the village for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010

Religion

From the , 175 or 84.5% were Roman Catholic, while 8 or 3.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. There were 5 (or about 2.42% of the population) who were Islamic. 11 (or about 5.31% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 8 individuals (or about 3.86% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Mase about 66 or (31.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 10 or (4.8%) have completed additional higher education (either University or a ''Fachhochschule''). Of the 10 who completed tertiary schooling, 90.0% were Swiss men, 10.0% were Swiss women.

, there were 25 students from Mase who attended schools outside the village.

References

External links

Official website


Mont Noble Tourism

{{Authority control

Former municipalities of Valais