Turtmann (French: ''Tourtemagne'') is a former

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 ...

in the district of

Leuk Leuk (french: Loèche-Ville) is a municipality in the district of Leuk in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2013, the former municipality of Erschmatt merged into the municipality of Leuk.canton of

Valais Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 ...

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 ...

. The municipalities of Turtmann and

Unterems Unterems is a former municipality in the district of Leuk in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. The municipalities of Turtmann and Unterems merged on 1 January 2013 into the new municipality of Turtmann-Unterems.Turtmann-Unterems Turtmann-Unterems is a municipality in the district of Leuk in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. The municipalities of Turtmann and Unterems merged on 1 January 2013 into the new municipality of Turtmann-Unterems.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 2 January 2013

History

Turtmann is first mentioned in 1050 as ''Curtmannonis''. In 1210 it was mentioned as ''Torthemanei'' and ''Tortemagny''. Until 2003 Turtmann had a military airfield which was used by

Swiss Air Force The Swiss Air Force (german: Schweizer Luftwaffe; french: Forces aériennes suisses; it, Forze aeree svizzere; rm, Aviatica militara svizra) is the air component of the Swiss Armed Forces, established on 31 July 1914 as a part of the army and ...

Northrop F-5 The Northrop F-5 is a family of supersonic light fighter aircraft initially designed as a privately funded project in the late 1950s by Northrop Corporation. There are two main models, the original F-5A and F-5B Freedom Fighter variants and t ...

of fighter squadron 13. The airfield is now just for the use of civil aircraft. After the withdrawal of the Swiss Air Force the

aircraft cavern Aircraft cavern, a calque of the German word ''Flugzeugkaverne'', is an underground hangar amongst others used by the Swiss Air Force. Historical During World War II, the neutral Swiss military airfields were for the first time equipped with si ...

was used for the storage of

Swiss Army The Swiss Armed Forces (german: Schweizer Armee, french: Armée suisse, it, Esercito svizzero, rm, Armada svizra; ) operates on land and in the air, serving as the primary armed forces of Switzerland. Under the country's militia system, re ...

M113 armored personnel carriers.

Geography

Turtmann had an area, , of . Of this area, 46.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 36.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 14.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and 3.2% is unproductive land. The former municipality is located in the Leuk district, south of the Rhone river down in the Rhone valley at the entrance to the Turtmann valley. It consists of the village of Turtmann and the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

of Tännu and Ried.

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 the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vis ...

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 latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

is ''Gules, a Bend wavy Argent a Griffin passant coward Or holding in dexter a sword of the second in chief two Mullets of Six of the third in base Coupeaux Vert and fleur-de-lys of the third.''

Demographics

Turtmann had a population () of 997.Swiss Federal Statistics Office – STAT-TAB
''Ständige und Nichtständige Wohnbevölkerung nach Region, Geschlecht, Nationalität und Alter'' accessed 3 October 2012 , 8.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals.
accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of -5.6%. It has changed at a rate of -4.2% due to migration and at a rate of 0.7% due to births and deaths.
accessed 09-September-2011 Most of the population () speaks

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

(923 or 93.0%) as their first language,

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 ...

is the second most common (36 or 3.6%) and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

is the third (15 or 1.5%). There are 7 people who speak French and 1 person who speaks Romansh. , the gender distribution of the population was 47.2% male and 52.8% female. The population was made up of 413 Swiss men (42.6% of the population) and 44 (4.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 477 Swiss women (49.2%) and 35 (3.6%) non-Swiss women.Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality 569 or about 57.4% were born in Turtmann and lived there in 2000. There were 243 or 24.5% who were born in the same canton, while 57 or 5.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 101 or 10.2% were born outside of Switzerland. The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 30.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 56.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 12.4%. , there were 443 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 459 married individuals, 58 widows or widowers and 32 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 350 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.8 persons per household. There were 87 households that consist of only one person and 53 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 360 households that answered this question, 24.2% were households made up of just one person and there were 10 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 79 married couples without children, 151 married couples with children There were 18 single parents with a child or children. There were 5 households that were made up of unrelated people and 10 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. there were 123 single family homes (or 55.7% of the total) out of a total of 221 inhabited buildings. There were 59 multi-family buildings (26.7%), along with 25 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (11.3%) and 14 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (6.3%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 , a total of 325 apartments (85.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 33 apartments (8.7%) were seasonally occupied and 22 apartments (5.8%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 3.1 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.25%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1020 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1798 from:start till:253 text:"253" bar:1850 from:start till:433 text:"433" bar:1860 from:start till:538 text:"538" bar:1870 from:start till:496 text:"496" bar:1880 from:start till:521 text:"521" bar:1888 from:start till:548 text:"548" bar:1900 from:start till:519 text:"519" bar:1910 from:start till:562 text:"562" bar:1920 from:start till:614 text:"614" bar:1930 from:start till:663 text:"663" bar:1941 from:start till:637 text:"637" bar:1950 from:start till:751 text:"751" bar:1960 from:start till:838 text:"838" bar:1970 from:start till:793 text:"793" bar:1980 from:start till:831 text:"831" bar:1990 from:start till:848 text:"848" bar:2000 from:start till:992 text:"992"

Sights

The entire village of Turtmann is designated as part of the

Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage. Sites of national importance Types The types are based on t ...

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 62.45% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (25.62%), the SP (6.16%) and the FDP (4.64%). In the federal election, a total of 561 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 can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Unive ...

was 77.6%. In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 544 votes were cast, of which 15 or about 2.8% were invalid. The voter participation was 73.4%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 558 votes were cast, of which 26 or about 4.7% were invalid. The voter participation was 77.2%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

, Turtmann had an unemployment rate of 2.1%. , there were 82 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 31 businesses involved in this sector. 147 people were 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 were 17 businesses in this sector. 155 people were 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 42 businesses in this sector. There were 447 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 34.9% of the workforce. the total number of

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit that indicates the workload of an employee, employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to me ...

jobs was 307. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 42, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 140 of which 93 or (66.4%) were in manufacturing and 44 (31.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 125. In the tertiary sector; 42 or 33.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 22 or 17.6% were in the movement and storage of goods, 21 or 16.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 3 or 2.4% were the insurance or financial industry, 12 or 9.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 5 or 4.0% were in education and 4 or 3.2% were in health care. , there were 193 workers who commuted into the municipality and 277 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 19.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 51.7% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 833 or 84.0% were

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 24 or 2.4% 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 was 1 member of an Orthodox church, and there were 10 individuals (or about 1.01% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 77 (or about 7.76% of the population) who were

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 was 1 person who was

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

. 11 (or about 1.11% of the population) belonged 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 40 individuals (or about 4.03% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Turtmann about 347 or (35.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 62 or (6.3%) have completed additional higher education (either

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

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 ...

''). Of the 62 who completed tertiary schooling, 80.6% were Swiss men, 14.5% were Swiss women. During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 91 students in the Turtmann school system. The

education system The educational system generally refers to the structure of all institutions and the opportunities for obtaining education within a country. It includes all pre-school institutions, starting from family education, and/or early childhood education ...

in the Canton of Valais allows young children to attend one year of non-obligatory

Kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

. During that school year, there 2 kindergarten classes (KG1 or KG2) and 25 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of

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

. In Turtmann there were a total of 6 classes and 91 students in the primary school. The

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling (orientation classes), followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. All the lower and upper secondary students from Turtmann attend their school in a neighboring municipality.Obligatorische Schulzeit
accessed 24 August 2011 , there were 78 students from Turtmann who attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

Official website

M113 in Cavern Turtmann
{{Authority control Former municipalities of Valais