Châtel-Saint-Denis (; , locally ''Tsathi'' , or ''Châtél-Sent-Denis'', locally ''Tsathi-Chin-Dèni'') 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' ...

and district capital of the district of

Veveyse Veveyse District (; ; ) is one of seven districts in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. It has a population of (as of ). It takes its name from the river Veveyse which flows through the district. Municipalities It consists of the following ...

in the canton of

Fribourg or is the capital of the Cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Canton of Fribourg, Fribourg and district of Sarine (district), La Sarine. Located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss Plateau, it is a major economic, adminis ...

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 ...

Geography

Châtel-Saint-Denis has an area of . Of this area, or 46.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 42.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 7.0% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.6% is either rivers or lakes and or 3.4% 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 3.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.5%. Out of the forested land, 38.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 2.1% is used for growing crops and 17.0% is pastures and 27.5% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The capital of the Veveyse district is located on the banks of the Veveyse river, on the Bulle-Vevey road. It consists of the village of Châtel-Saint-Denis, the ski and hiking areas of Les Paccots and Fruence and a number of

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

. The large municipality includes the Lac de Lussy and Lac des Joncs nature preserves.

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 ''Or an Eagle displayed Sable.''

Demographics

Châtel-Saint-Denis has a population () of . , 23.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 36.2%. Migration accounted for 28.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 3.5%.
accessed 19-December-2011 Most of the population () speaks

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

(3,909 or 89.1%) as their first language, Portuguese is the second most common (193 or 4.4%) and

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 ...

is the third (118 or 2.7%). There are 34 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 ...

. , the population was 50.5% male and 49.5% female. The population was made up of 2,110 Swiss men (37.3% of the population) and 743 (13.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 2,178 Swiss women (38.5%) and 622 (11.0%) non-Swiss women.Canton of Fribourg Statistics
accessed 3 November 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 1,634 or about 37.2% were born in Châtel-Saint-Denis and lived there in 2000. There were 759 or 17.3% who were born in the same canton, while 1,000 or 22.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 808 or 18.4% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.1% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 13.5%. , there were 1,790 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,084 married individuals, 258 widows or widowers and 257 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 1,826 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 638 households that consist of only one person and 103 households with five or more people. , a total of 1,756 apartments (72.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 549 apartments (22.7%) were seasonally occupied and 117 apartments (4.8%) 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 9.2 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.14%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:4400 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:900 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:180 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:2339 text:"2,339" bar:1860 from:start till:2381 text:"2,381" bar:1870 from:start till:2316 text:"2,316" bar:1880 from:start till:2346 text:"2,346" bar:1888 from:start till:2271 text:"2,271" bar:1900 from:start till:2509 text:"2,509" bar:1910 from:start till:2708 text:"2,708" bar:1920 from:start till:2545 text:"2,545" bar:1930 from:start till:2553 text:"2,553" bar:1941 from:start till:2885 text:"2,885" bar:1950 from:start till:2908 text:"2,908" bar:1960 from:start till:2666 text:"2,666" bar:1970 from:start till:2842 text:"2,842" bar:1980 from:start till:3141 text:"3,141" bar:1990 from:start till:3797 text:"3,797" bar:2000 from:start till:4389 text:"4,389"

Heritage sites of national significance

The Saint-Denis Church is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire village of Châtel-Saint-Denis and the hamlet of Prayoud are 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 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 30.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (29.1%), the CVP (17.3%) and the FDP (9.1%).Canton of Fribourg National Council Election of 23 October 2011 Statistics
accessed 3 November 2011 The SVP received about the same percentage of the vote as they did in the 2007 Federal election (34.0% in 2007 vs 30.5% in 2011). The SPS retained about the same popularity (24.1% in 2007), the CVP retained about the same popularity (21.6% in 2007) and the FDP retained about the same popularity (11.4% in 2007). A total of 1,490 votes were cast in this election, of which 17 or 1.1% were invalid.

Economy

, Châtel-Saint-Denis had an unemployment rate of 3.6%. , there were 123 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 45 businesses involved in this sector. 984 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 constructi ...

and there were 73 businesses in this sector. 1,728 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 236 businesses in this sector. There were 2,261 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.2% of the workforce. 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 2,426. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 99, of which 82 were in agriculture and 17 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 924 of which 658 or (71.2%) were in manufacturing and 240 (26.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 1,403. In the tertiary sector; 345 or 24.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 43 or 3.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 119 or 8.5% were in a hotel or restaurant, 157 or 11.2% were in the information industry, 25 or 1.8% were the insurance or financial industry, 123 or 8.8% were technical professionals or scientists, 82 or 5.8% were in education and 279 or 19.9% were in health care. , there were 1,223 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,145 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.1 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 9.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 66.6% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 3,148 or 71.7% 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 514 or 11.7% 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 21 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.48% of the population), there were 5 individuals (or about 0.11% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 72 individuals (or about 1.64% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 individuals (or about 0.05% of the population) who were

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, and 142 (or about 3.24% 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. There were 6 individuals who were

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

, 1 person who was

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

and 3 individuals who belonged to another church. 285 (or about 6.49% 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 ...

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 222 individuals (or about 5.06% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Châtel-Saint-Denis about 1,390 or (31.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 437 or (10.0%) 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 437 who completed tertiary schooling, 59.3% were Swiss men, 22.9% were Swiss women, 10.5% were non-Swiss men and 7.3% were non-Swiss women. The Canton of Fribourg 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 a three or four year optional upper Secondary school. The upper Secondary school is divided into gymnasium (university preparatory) and vocational programs. After they finish the upper Secondary program, students may choose to attend a Tertiary school or continue their

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 ...

.Chart of the education system in Canton Fribourg
During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 1,217 students attending 62 classes in Châtel-Saint-Denis. A total of 905 students from the municipality attended any school, either in the municipality or outside of it. There were 6 kindergarten classes with a total of 104 students in the municipality. The municipality had 22 primary classes and 422 students. During the same year, there were 32 lower secondary classes with a total of 660 students. There was one upper Secondary class, with 20 upper Secondary students. The municipality had one special Tertiary class, with 11 specialized Tertiary students. , there were 375 students in Châtel-Saint-Denis who came from another municipality, while 112 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Notable people

2015 UEC Track Elite European Championships 400

* Oswald Pilloud (1873–1946), a Swiss painter and illustrator * Charles Berthoud (born 1938), a Swiss wrestler, competed in the Greco-Roman middleweight at the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 1960 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 25 August to 11 September 1960 in Rome, Italy. Rome had previously been awar ...

* Bernard Genoud (1942–2010), Bishop of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg The Diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg () is a Latin Catholic diocese in Switzerland, which is (as all sees in the Alpine country) exempt (i.e. immediately subject to the Holy See, not part of any ecclesiastical province). The original dioce ...

1999-2010 * Thérèse Meyer (born 1948), a Swiss politician, member of the Swiss National Council and President of the National Council for 2005. *

Alexandre Imperatori Alexandre Emmanuel Imperatori (born 19 April 1987 in Châtel-Saint-Denis) is a Switzerland, Swiss racing driver who lives in Shanghai, China. Career Karting Imperatori started kart racing at the age of four in Spain. He raced karting in Spai ...

(born 1987), a Swiss racing driver, he lives in Shanghai, China. *

Luca Aerni Luca Aerni (born 27 March 1993) is a Swiss World Cup alpine ski racer. Born in Châtel-Saint-Denis,Luca Aerni
he compet ...

(born 1993), a Swiss alpine skier, competed at the

2014 Winter Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (), were an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 7 to 23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Opening ro ...

Frank Pasche Frank Pasche (born 19 March 1993) is a Swiss former professional racing cyclist. He rode at the 2015 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, and is a two time silver medalist in the team pursuit at the UEC European Track Championships. Major res ...

(born 1993), a Swiss professional racing cyclist

References

External links

Official website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chatel-Saint-Denis Cities in Switzerland Municipalities of the canton of Fribourg Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Fribourg