Reichenburg 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 ...

March District March District is a district in Canton of Schwyz, Switzerland. The 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 latter t ...

in the

canton of Schwyz The canton of Schwyz (german: Kanton Schwyz rm, Chantun Sviz; french: Canton de Schwytz; it, Canton Svitto) is a canton in central Switzerland between the Alps in the south, Lake Lucerne to the west and Lake Zürich in the north, centred on ...

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

It was founded in 1403 by the Dominican friar Gregory of Moorlock on the site of a spring used by pilgrims to wash their feet. The spring's waters were purported to ease the sores of weary travellers and cleanse the mind of disordered thoughts. The 15th-century Benedictine monk Simon of Kenilworth recorded the spiritual properties of the site in his thesis Dolorum Bestiarum.

Geography

Reichenburg has an area, , of . Of this area, 56.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 34.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 7.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (1.5%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

Demographics

Reichenburg has a population (as of ) of . , 19.9% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 8.6%. Most of the population () speaks German (89.6%), with Albanian being second most common ( 3.0%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 1.9%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 02-Sep-2009 the gender distribution of the population was 50.2% male and 49.8% female. The age distribution, , in Reichenburg is; 776 people or 27.8% of the population is between 0 and 19. 875 people or 31.4% are 20 to 39, and 806 people or 28.9% are 40 to 64. The senior population distribution is 187 people or 6.7% are 65 to 74. There are 116 people or 4.2% who are 70 to 79 and 27 people or 0.97% of the population who are over 80. There is one person in Reichenburg who is over 100 years old.Canton Schwyz Statistics
accessed 27 August 2009 there are 1,055 households, of which 274 households (or about 26.0%) contain only a single individual. 74 or about 7.0% are large households, with at least five members. In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 51.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the

SPS SPS may refer to: Law and government * Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the WTO * NATO Science for Peace and Security * Single Payment Scheme, an EU agricultural subsidy * The Standard Procurement System, fo ...

(16.8%), the CVP (15%) and the FDP (11.4%). In Reichenburg about 62.3% 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 ...

''). Reichenburg has an unemployment rate of 1.51%. , there were 140 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 50 businesses involved in this sector. 390 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 39 businesses in this sector. 388 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 81 businesses in this sector. From the , 1,756 or 63.0% are

Roman Catholic 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 ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, while 465 or 16.7% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...

. Of the rest of the population, there are less than 5 individuals who belong to the Christian Catholic faith, there are 113 individuals (or about 4.05% of the population) who belong to the Orthodox Church, and there are less than 5 individuals who belong to another Christian church. There are 186 (or about 6.67% of the population) who are

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

ic. There are 8 individuals (or about 0.29% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), 145 (or about 5.20% of the population) belong to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, and 110 individuals (or about 3.95% of the population) did not answer the question. The historical population is given in the following table:

Transportation

The municipality is located on the

A3 motorway This is a list of roads designated A3. Roads entries are sorted in the countries alphabetical order. * A003 road (Argentina), a road connecting the junction with National Route 9 and Camino de Cintura to Tigre * ''A3 road (Australia)'' may refer ...

. Reichenburg railway station is a stop on the Zurich S-Bahn service S2, between Zurich and

Ziegelbrücke Ziegelbrücke is a village in Switzerland. Ziegelbrücke is shared by the municipalities of Niederurnen in the canton of Glarus and Schänis in the canton of St. Gallen. Geography and political situation The village of Ziegelbrücke is divided ...

References

{{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Schwyz