Rapperswil, Bern

Rapperswil is a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It lies north of the capital Bern. On 1 January 2013 the former municipality of Ruppoldsried merged into Rapperswil.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 14 January 2013 On 1 January 2016 the former municipality of Bangerten merged into Rapperswil.

History

Rapperswil is first mentioned in 1241 as ''Raverswiler''.

The oldest trace of a settlement in Rapperswil is a Roman era settlement or estate on the site of the current village church. This, together with a foundation at Unteren Leenwald, money at Moosaffoltern (coins) and brick fragments at Holzhäusern indicate that there were scattered small settlements here during the Roman era. Grave mounds and a High Medieval earthen fort show that the area remained settled after the collapse of the Roman Empire. The village was originally part of the Zähringen lands. After the Zähringen family died out, it was inherited by the Kyburgs.

Starting in 1262, the low court rights and pieces of property were gradually sold or gifted to Frienisberg Abbey and other monasteries. The lower court rights were held by a number of monasteries. The court in Rapperswil and Wierezwil was held by Frienisberg Abbey, Seewil and Moosaffoltern by Münchenbuchsee, Bittwil by Fraubrunnen and Frauchwil by the Cathedral chapter of St. Vinzenz in Bern. Dieterswil-Zimlisberg-Zuzwil had their own court in the community. The high court for all the villages was held by the Kyburg bailiffs until 1406, when it went to the District Court in Zollikofen. In 1528, these villages came under Bernese control and the various lower courts were divided among five bailiffs. They were first united in 1803 in the Aarberg District.

A village priest was first mentioned in 1241. In 1263, the Kyburgs granted the church to Frienisberg Abbey. The old church was replaced by a new building in 1860-62. The parsonage is located on the foundations of a medieval sanctuary.

In 1849-52 the Bern-Buren road was built which helped tie the isolated farming villages together into a community. The population in the municipality declined from 1850 to 1940 as the farms changed from growing crops to dairy farming and became increasingly mechanized. However, agriculture remained an important part of the economy. In 2005, just over one-quarter of all jobs in the municipality were in agriculture. In addition to agriculture, there are several small businesses and a brick factory in Rapperswil.

Ruppoldsried

Ruppoldsried is first mentioned in 1279 as ''Ruopolsriet''.

During the Late Middle Ages the village was owned by the von Ergeuw family from Burgdorf. The family is mentioned in 1373 during a dispute over land use near the village. At some time before 1506, Konrad von Ergeuw sold the village to Bern. Under Bernese control Ruppoldsried was placed under the control and low court of Mülchi. It was part of the high court of Zollikofen.

The residents were part of the parish of Messen in Solothurn. In the 16th century, when Messen embraced the Protestant Reformation and adopted the Reformed faith, Ruppoldsried followed.

Beginning in the 19th century local farmers began to raise dairy cattle along with traditional agriculture. The village dairy was built in 1884. Today Ruppoldsried and Messen form an intercantonal school district. The village has regular Postauto service from Bern and Lyss coins have been found in Bangerten. In the 13th and 14th Centuries the Order of St. John in Münchenbuchsee bought out most of the earlier land owners, including the Burgdorf Family von Steffisburg. Following the Secularization of the monasteries (1528), Bangerten became part of the '' Landvogtei'' of Münchenbuchsee.

The municipality has remained generally agrarian. In 1990, 24 of the 42 workers in the village worked in agriculture. Due to agreements with neighboring municipalities, the small municipality has been able to function with limited local infrastructure. Bangerten shares the vital records and welfare office with Etzelkofen, a primary school with Scheunen and a secondary school with Rapperswil.

Geography

Rapperswil has an area of . Of the area before the 2016 merger, or 62.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 28.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 8.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.1% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.1%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 49.1% is used for growing crops and 12.3% is pastures, while 1.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

It lies on the Rapperswil Plateau in the Swiss Plateau and stretches between the valleys of the Limpach in the north and the Lyss

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases