Corcelles 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 Jura bernois administrative district in the

canton of Bern The canton of Bern, or Berne (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. The bear is the heraldic symbol of the c ...

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 ...

. It is located in the French-speaking part of the canton in the

Jura mountains The Jura Mountains ( ) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the French–Swiss border. While the Jura range proper (" folded Jura", ) is located in France and Switzerla ...

History

Corcelles may have been first mentioned in 1181 as ''Corcellis'' though there is some debate over this mention. The village has always been part of the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Grandval. In 1531, the entire parish converted to the new faith of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

. For most of its history, the village was owned by the

provost Provost may refer to: Officials Ecclesiastic * Provost (religion), a high-ranking church official * Prince-provost, a high-ranking church official Government * Provost (civil), an officer of local government, including the equivalent ...

Moutier-Grandval Abbey Moutier-Grandval Abbey was a Benedictine abbey near the villages of Moutier and Grandval in today's Bernese Jura, Canton of Bern in Switzerland. It was founded around 640, when Grandval already existed; Moutier grew up around the abbey. Histor ...

. After the 1797 French victory and the

Treaty of Campo Formio The Treaty of Campo Formio (today Campoformido) was signed on 17 October 1797 (26 Vendémiaire VI) by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Philipp von Cobenzl as representatives of the French Republic and the Austrian monarchy, respectively. The trea ...

, Corcelles became part of the French

Département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

Mont-Terrible Mont-Terrible () was a department of the First French Republic, with its seat at Porrentruy. The Mont Terrible for which the department was named is now known as , a peak of near Courgenay (now in the canton of Jura, Switzerland). The toponym ...

. Three years later, in 1800 it became part of the Département of

Haut-Rhin Haut-Rhin (); Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; , . is a department in the Grand Est region, France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine; its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less pop ...

. After

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

's defeat and the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...

, Corcelles was assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815. Iron has been mined and smelted in Corcelles for centuries. A hydraulic

hammer mill A hammer mill, hammer forge or hammer works was a workshop in the pre-industrial era that was typically used to manufacture semi-finished, wrought iron products or, sometimes, finished agricultural or mining tools, or military weapons. The featur ...

operated in the village from 1791 until 1955. Today the building has been restored and is a museum. From 1830 until 1842, the iron was smelted in a

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure. In a ...

by Ludwig von Rolls. While the iron industry was important to the region, the village was isolated and difficult to reach. In 1904-08, the

Solothurn Solothurn ( ; ; ; ; ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the north-west of Switzerland on the banks of the Aare and on the foot of the Weissenstein Jura mountains. The town is ...

Moutier Moutier () is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Switzerland. Currently, the town belongs to the Jura bernois (administrative district), Jura bernois administrative district of the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Ber ...

railway built a railroad bridge to link the village to the rest of the country.

Geography

Corcelles has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 41.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 56.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 2.4% is settled (buildings or roads).Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 During the same year, housing and buildings made up 1.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.7%. Out of the forested land, 51.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 7.5% is used for growing crops and 12.7% is pastures and 21.3% is used for alpine pastures. It is a

ribbon village A ribbon or riband is a thin band of material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily as decorative binding and tying. Cloth ribbons are made of natural materials such as silk, cotton, and jute and of synthetic mate ...

on the east end of the Grand Val (valley of Moutier), with some houses on Mont Raimeux. On 31 December 2009, District de Moutier, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Arrondissement administratif Jura bernois.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
accessed 4 April 2011

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 ''Per pale Argent a Gules two Fishes in pale counterchanged.'' The fish represent the fish of the Gaibiat river which passes through the municipality.

Demographics

Corcelles has a population () of . , 3.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of -4%. Migration accounted for -2.2%, while births and deaths accounted for 0%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 17 June 2013 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), ...

(173 or 84.4%) as their first language,

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 second most common (31 or 15.1%) and

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 ...

is the third (1 or 0.5%). , the population was 49.8% male and 50.2% female. The population was made up of 108 Swiss men (48.4% of the population) and 3 (1.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 108 Swiss women (48.4%) and 4 (1.8%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 68 or about 33.2% were born in Corcelles and lived there in 2000. There were 71 or 34.6% who were born in the same canton, while 54 or 26.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 9 or 4.4% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 58.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 21%. , there were 87 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 94 married individuals, 19 widows or widowers and 5 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 33 households that consist of only one person and 13 households with five or more people. , a total of 75 apartments (81.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 13 apartments (14.1%) were seasonally occupied and 4 apartments (4.3%) 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 4.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.83%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:35 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:250 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:50 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:10 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1745 from:start till:90 text:"90" bar:1850 from:start till:180 text:"180" bar:1860 from:start till:191 text:"191" bar:1870 from:start till:201 text:"201" bar:1880 from:start till:245 text:"245" bar:1888 from:start till:221 text:"221" bar:1900 from:start till:187 text:"187" bar:1910 from:start till:229 text:"229" bar:1920 from:start till:177 text:"177" bar:1930 from:start till:205 text:"205" bar:1941 from:start till:201 text:"201" bar:1950 from:start till:198 text:"198" bar:1960 from:start till:192 text:"192" bar:1970 from:start till:184 text:"184" bar:1980 from:start till:185 text:"185" bar:1990 from:start till:187 text:"187" bar:2000 from:start till:205 text:"205"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 34.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) (20.4%), the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP) (11.7%) and the Evangelical People's Party (EVP) (9.2%). In the federal election, a total of 73 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 43.7%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Corcelles had an unemployment rate of 0.86%. , there were a total of 70 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 24 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 8 businesses involved in this sector. 19 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 6 businesses in this sector. 27 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 3 businesses in this sector. There were 106 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.5% of the workforce. there were a total of 53

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. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 15, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 18 of which 8 or (44.4%) were in manufacturing and 10 (55.6%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 20. In the tertiary sector; 2 were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 4 were in a hotel or restaurant, 14 were in education. , there were 9 workers who commuted into the municipality and 75 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 8.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 31 workers (77.5% of the 40 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Corcelles.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 11.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 61.3% used a private car. In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident of Corcelles making 150,000 CHF was 13.2%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 19.4%. For comparison, the rate for the entire canton in the same year, was 14.2% for married residents and 22.0% for single. The nationwide rate was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively. In 2009 there were a total of 100 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 26 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 2 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Corcelles was 112,900 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF.

Religion

From the , 107 or 52.2% 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 ...

, while 47 or 22.9% 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 ...

. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 member of an Orthodox church, there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 36 individuals (or about 17.56% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. 8 (or about 3.90% 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 5 individuals (or about 2.44% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Corcelles about 59.4% of the population have completed non-mandatory

upper secondary education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...

, and 6.6% 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 7 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 71.4% were Swiss men, 28.6% 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 ...

. During the 2011-12 school year, there were a total of 11 students attending classes in Corcelles. There were no kindergarten classes and one primary class with 11 students.Schuljahr 2011/12 pdf document
accessed 9 May 2013 , there were a total of 22 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 4 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 18 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 35 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern