Bargen 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
Seeland administrative district in the
canton of
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 ...
in
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
Bargen is first mentioned in 1228 as ''Bargen''.
[ The earliest traces of humans are some scattered ]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 ...
items at Bargenfeld and Neolithic
The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...
and Hallstatt
Hallstatt () is a small town in the district of Gmunden District, Gmunden, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Situated between the southwestern shore of Hallstätter See and the steep slopes of the Dachstein massif, the town lies in the Sa ...
items in a gravel pit. It lies on the Roman road
Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...
from Aventicum
Aventicum was the largest town and capital of Roman Switzerland (Helvetia or Civitas Helvetiorum). Its remains are beside the modern town of Avenches.
The city was probably created ''ex nihilo'' in the early 1st century AD, as the capital of ...
to Petinesca
Petinesca is an archeological site on the territory of Studen, a community of the Canton of Bern, in Switzerland, where Celtic and Roman vestiges were found.
Celtic and Roman vestiges
The site lies at the SE edge of the Jensberg mountain. Celt ...
, of which some remains are still visible. There are some medieval ruins, which are probably from the cluniac
Cluny Abbey (; , formerly also ''Cluni'' or ''Clugny''; ) is a former Order of Saint Benedict, Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was dedicated to Saint Peter, Saints Peter and Saint Paul, Paul.
The abbey was constructed ...
priory
A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...
's barge and bridge, between the old Aare
The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland.
Its total length from its source to i ...
bridge and village. In 1831-32 fortifications were built in the village to protect the strategic Aare river crossing.
It was part of the herrschaft
The German term ''Herrschaft'' (plural: ''Herrschaften'') covers a broad semantic field and only the context will tell whether it means, "rule", "power", "dominion", "authority", "territory" or "lordship". In its most abstract sense, it refers ...
of Aarberg
Aarberg is a List of towns in Switzerland, historic town and a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Seeland (administrative district), Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
Aarberg lies from Bern abov ...
and came with Aarberg under 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 ...
ese control in 1375.
The romanesque- gothic village church of St Mary
Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loreto. ...
was first mentioned in 1228. It the 14th century it was under the patronage of the lords of La Roche. In 1415 it came under the authority of Frienisberg Abbey. It was secularized in 1528 and was then owned by Bern. The church was remodeled in 1671-72.
The village has always depended on agriculture around the Aare river for much of its economy. The Aarberger Ship Canal (1645–63), the Hagneck Canal (1868–78) and the canal for the power station at Kallnach (1909–12) all changed the landscape around the village and opened up additional farming land. In 1990, over one-third of the jobs in the village were still in agriculture.[
]
Geography
Bargen is located in Grossen Moos, a very flat fertile area in Seeland. The surrounding parishes starting from the south and going clockwise are Niederried bei Kallnash, Kallnach, Siselen, Walperswil, Kappelen, Aarberg and Radelfingen. The border into Radelfingen is defined by the tributary of the Rhine
The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...
called the Aar
The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland.
Its total length from its source to i ...
. To the north, Bargen is confined by the Aare-Hagneck canal. It consists of the linear village
In mathematics, the term ''linear'' is used in two distinct senses for two different properties:
* linearity of a '' function'' (or '' mapping'');
* linearity of a ''polynomial''.
An example of a linear function is the function defined by f(x)= ...
of Bargen.
Bargen has an area of . Of this area, or 70.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 18.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 7.0% is settled (buildings or roads), or 3.9% is either rivers or lakes.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.9%. Out of the forested land, 17.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 64.2% is used for growing crops and 5.0% is pastures, while 1.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.[
]
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 ''Gules a Pegasus rampant Argent.''
Demographics
Bargen has a population () of . , 7.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 7.8%. Migration accounted for 9.7%, while births and deaths accounted for -1.7%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 27-April-2012
Most of the population () speaks German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
(875 or 95.3%) as their first language, Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...
is the second most common (11 or 1.2%) and Portuguese is the third (10 or 1.1%). There are 3 people who speak French, 7 people who speak Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
and 1 person who speaks Romansh.[
, the population was 50.0% male and 50.0% female. The population was made up of 444 Swiss men (45.3% of the population) and 46 (4.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 459 Swiss women (46.8%) and 3 (0.3%) non-Swiss women.][Statistical office of the Canton of Bern]
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 333 or about 36.3% were born in Bargen and lived there in 2000. There were 402 or 43.8% who were born in the same canton, while 89 or 9.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 68 or 7.4% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 29.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 53.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.8%.][
, there were 384 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 444 married individuals, 57 widows or widowers and 33 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 342 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household.[ There were 86 households that consist of only one person and 43 households with five or more people. , a total of 329 apartments (94.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 12 apartments (3.4%) were seasonally occupied and 9 apartments (2.6%) were empty.][Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 1 new units per 1000 residents.[
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 39.95% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (20.99%), 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 ...
(11.27%) and the FDP (8.56%). In the federal election, a total of 328 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 is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...
was 45.1%.
Economy
Because other bigger villages are situated very near of Bargen, there are no department stores in the village. But despite this, there is a butcher's, a pizza delivery service, three restaurants and a little brewery.
, Bargen had an unemployment rate of 1.2%. , there were 85 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 30 businesses involved in this sector. 254 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 7 businesses in this sector. 89 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 ...
, with 17 businesses in this sector.[
the total number of ]full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often use ...
jobs was 357. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 54, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 243 of which 160 or (65.8%) were in manufacturing and 83 (34.2%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 60. In the tertiary sector; 23 or 38.3% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 17 or 28.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 1 was a technical professional or scientist, 8 or 13.3% were in education and 6 or 10.0% were in health care.
, there were 100 workers who commuted into the municipality and 350 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.5 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 12.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 51.9% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 73 or 8.0% 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 745 or 81.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 40 individuals (or about 4.36% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 26 (or about 2.83% of the population) who were Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
ic. 24 (or about 2.61% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...
or 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 29 individuals (or about 3.16% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Bargen about 340 or (37.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 65 or (7.1%) have completed additional higher education (either university
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
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 65 who completed tertiary schooling, 78.5% were Swiss men, 15.4% were Swiss women.[
The Canton of Bern school system provides 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 cen ...
, followed by six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...
.[Schuljahr 2009/10 pdf document]
accessed 4 January 2012
, there were 61 students from Bargen who attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
Transport
Bargen is situated on the Palézieux–Lyss line and has its own railway station. The village itself is spread along the main road from Aarberg to Kerzers.
References
External links
Bargen - Official website
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of Bern