Mönthal is a

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

Brugg Brugg (sometimes written as Brugg AG in order to distinguish it from other ''Brugg''s) is a Switzerland, Swiss Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality and a List of towns in Switzerland, town in the canton of Aargau and is the seat of the Bru ...

in canton of

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

Originally it was a fortified late

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

hilltop settlement. Additionally, a

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 Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

bronze figure was discovered in the village. During the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...

there were a number of small settlements in the area. Some of these houses still exist, while others (such as Bernbrunnen, which was mentioned as an independent village about 1300) have vanished. Mönthal is first mentioned about 1273 as ''Muenuntal''. The low and high justice rights were held by the

Habsburgs The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

, until 1460 when they went to

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

. Under Bern it was part of the Schenkenberg

bailiwick A bailiwick () is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and once also applied to territories in which a privately appointed bailiff exercised the sheriff's functions under a royal or imperial writ. In English, the original French combi ...

with the court in Stilli. St. George's church was first mentioned in 1273. After 1380 the rights to the church collection and the appointment of the minister was held by Brugg. After 1860 Mönthal was an independent

Reformed Reform is beneficial change. Reform, reformed or reforming may also refer to: Media * ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang * Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group * ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine Places * Reform, Al ...

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

, though in 2007 it merged into the

Bözberg Bözberg is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Brugg (district), Brugg in Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau in Switzerland. It ceased to exist in 1873, when it was split into the two new municipalities Oberböz ...

parish. Starting in 1630, the village had its own school, though the building dates from 1820. Starting in the 18th century the village had a certain prosperity through

viticulture Viticulture (, "vine-growing"), viniculture (, "wine-growing"), or winegrowing is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine ...

and home production of

linen Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is very strong and absorbent, and it dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. Lin ...

and

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

. However, starting in 1850, the population and economy decreased. It wasn't until 1970 that the population started to grow, though this was mostly commuters into the region of Baden-Brugg.

Geography

Mönthal has an area, , of . Of this area, or 45.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 46.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 8.7% is settled (buildings or roads).Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.1%. 44.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 20.6% is used for growing crops and 22.9% is pastures, while 1.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. The municipality is located in the Brugg district, in a Jura valley between

and Laufenburg. It consists of the village of Mönthal and the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

of Ampfern on the ''Ampfernhöhe'' as well as scattered villages.

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 ''Azure three piles inverted Or topped with as many Mullets of the same in chief.''

Demographics

Mönthal has a population () of , 8.8% of the population are foreign nationals.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau -Bereich 01 -Bevölkerung
accessed 20 January 2010 Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of -4.1%. Most of the population () speaks German (95.2%), with French being second most common ( 1.3%) and Albanian being third ( 1.3%).
accessed 7 April 2010 The age distribution, , in Mönthal is; 20 children or 4.9% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 55 teenagers or 13.3% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 46 people or 11.2% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 42 people or 10.2% are between 30 and 39, 72 people or 17.5% are between 40 and 49, and 84 people or 20.4% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 58 people or 14.1% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 27 people or 6.6% are between 70 and 79, there are 8 people or 1.9% who are between 80 and 89.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 67.1% 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 12 homes with 1 or 2 persons in the household, 54 homes with 3 or 4 persons in the household, and 74 homes with 5 or more persons in the household. The average number of people per household was 2.66 individuals. there were 103 single family homes (or 58.5% of the total) out of a total of 176 homes and apartments.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau
accessed 20 January 2010 There were a total of 3 empty apartments for a 1.7% vacancy rate. , the construction rate of new housing units was 9.6 new units per 1000 residents. In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 45.1% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (13.8%), the CVP (11.1%) and the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

(10.3%). In Mönthal about 71.2% of the population (between age 25 and 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 () in the municipality. The historical population is given in the following table:

Economy

, Mönthal had an unemployment rate of 3.08%. , there were 19 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 10 businesses involved in this sector. 25 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 5 businesses in this sector. 20 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 9 businesses in this sector. there was a total of 218 workers who lived in the municipality. Of these, 187 or about 85.8% of the residents worked outside Mönthal while 24 people commuted into the municipality for work. There were a total of 55 jobs (of at least 6 hours per week) in the municipality.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau-Bereich 11 Verkehr und Nachrichtenwesen
accessed 21 January 2010 Of the working population, 12.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 56.3% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 107 or 26.9% 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 204 or 51.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 6 individuals (or about 1.51% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic faith.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau – Aargauer Zahlen 2009
accessed 20 January 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monthal Municipalities of Aargau