Grimentz

Grimentz is a village in the district of Sierre in the Swiss canton of Valais. An independent municipality before, it merged on 1 January 2009 with neighboring Ayer, Chandolin, Saint Jean, Saint-Luc and Vissoie to form the municipality of Anniviers.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 19 July 2011

History

Grimentz is first mentioned in 1052 as ''Grimiens''. The village was formerly known by its German name ''Grimensi'', however, that name is no longer used.

Geography

Lac de Moiry is a reservoir completed 1958. Lac des Autannes is located at an elevation of .
Grimentz lies at altitude above sea level.

The village lies in the Val d'Anniviers in the Pennine Alps.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the village coat of arms is ''Azure between two Mullets of Four Argent a semi-orb sinister of the same and on the chief of the last four Mullets of Five of the first.''

Demographics

Grimentz has a population () of 385.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
accessed 19 June 2010 Most of the population () speaks French (373 or 92.3%) as their first language, Portuguese is the second most common (16 or 4.0%) and German is the third (9 or 2.2%). There are 2 people who speak Italian.

Of the population in the village, 229 or about 56.7% were born in Grimentz and lived there in 2000. There were 65 or 16.1% who were born in the same canton, while 52 or 12.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 58 or 14.4% were born outside of Switzerland.

, there were 168 people who were single and never married in the village. There were 213 married individuals, 18 widows or widowers and 5 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011

There were 49 households that consist of only one person and 14 households with five or more people. , a total of 159 apartments (15.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 856 apartments (81.8%) were seasonally occupied and 32 apartments (3.1%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011

The historical population is given in the following chart:

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bar:1860 from:start till:227 text:"227"
bar:1870 from:start till:255 text:"255"
bar:1880 from:start till:224 text:"224"
bar:1888 from:start till:325 text:"325"
bar:1900 from:start till:353 text:"353"
bar:1910 from:start till:237 text:"237"
bar:1920 from:start till:236 text:"236"
bar:1930 from:start till:207 text:"207"
bar:1941 from:start till:205 text:"205"
bar:1950 from:start till:191 text:"191"
bar:1960 from:start till:270 text:"270"
bar:1970 from:start till:205 text:"205"
bar:1980 from:start till:271 text:"271"
bar:1990 from:start till:371 text:"371"
bar:2000 from:start till:404 text:"404"

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 57.69% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (13.26%), the SP (11.62%) and the FDP (10.84%). In the federal election, a total of 243 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 76.2%.

Economy

There were 216 residents of the village who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.0% of the workforce. the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 229. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 10, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 63 of which 14 or (22.2%) were in manufacturing and 49 (77.8%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 156. In the tertiary sector; 30 or 19.2% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 16 or 10.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 58 or 37.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 5 or 3.2% were the insurance or financial industry, 5 or 3.2% were technical professionals or scientists, 1 was in education.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
accessed 28 January 2011

, there were 49 workers who commuted into the village and 29 workers who commuted away. The village is a net importer of workers, with about 1.7 workers entering the village for every one leaving.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010

Religion

From the , 372 or 92.1% were Roman Catholic, while 20 or 5.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 member of an Orthodox church, and there was 1 individual who belongs to another Christian church. 9 (or about 2.23% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 1 individual (or about 0.25% of the population) did not answer the question.

Weather

Grimentz has an average of 106.7 days of rain or snow per year and on average receives of precipitation. The wettest month is August during which time Grimentz receives an average of of rain or snow. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 10.9 days. The driest month of the year is April with an average of of precipitation over 8.6 days., the Grimentz weather station elevation is 1575 meters above sea level.

Education

In Grimentz about 166 or (41.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 29 or (7.2%) have completed additional higher education (either University or a ''Fachhochschule''). Of the 29 who completed tertiary schooling, 48.3% were Swiss men, 41.4% were Swiss women.

, there were 2 students in Grimentz who came from another village, while 36 residents attended schools outside the village.

References

External links

Official website

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Former municipalities of Valais
Villages in Valais
Ski areas and resorts in Switzerland