Court, Switzerland
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Court 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 ...
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 ...
. It is located in the French-speaking
Bernese Jura Bernese Jura (, , German: Berner Jura) is the name for the French-speaking area of the Switzerland, Swiss canton of Bern, and from 2010 one of ten Administrative divisions of Switzerland, administrative divisions of the Cantons of Switzerland, cant ...
(''Jura Bernois'').


History

Court is first mentioned in 1148 as ''Cort''. Between the 12th and 15th centuries the village of Mévilier or Minvilier existed between Court and Champoz. During the 15th Mévilier village was abandoned for an unknown reason. For most of its history, Court was part of the district of Orval which was owned by the provost of
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 ...
, Court 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 ...
of
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 ...
, Court was assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815. Originally, Court was 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 Mévilier. By the 16th century it was part of the parish of Sorvilier. In 1531, Court adopted 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 ...
. The old
parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...
of Mévilier remained in operation as a
filial church A filial church, in the Roman Catholic Church, is a church to which is annexed the cure of souls, but which remains dependent on another church. The term comes from the Latin ''filialis'', from ''filia'', “daughter”. Description The term ''fi ...
for Court until about 1715. Then the residents of Court attended a church in the village of Vélé, between Court and Sorvilier. Finally, in 1864 a church was built in Court. During the Middle Ages there were sawmills, mines and smelters in the village. In 1658 there were four glass blowing shops in the village of le Chaluet. They remained in operation until 1738. Beginning at the end of the 18th century, pottery was produced in the municipality. The first major road through the Court Gorge in 1752 connected the village to the rest of the country and allowed it to grow. A railroad station of the Delémont- Sonceboz-
Biel Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; German language, German: ''Biel'' ; French language, French: ''Bienne'' ; Bernese German, locally ; ; ; ) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the ...
railroad was built in 1877. In 1911-16 a tunnel was built through 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 ...
which connected Court to
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 ...
and
Grenchen Grenchen () is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Lebern (district), Lebern in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Solothurn (canton), Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located at the foot of the Jura mountains betwee ...
. The excellent transportation links encouraged small factories to settle in Court. During the second half of the 19th century, engineering, watch-making and machining companies settled here. Today about two-thirds of the workers in the municipality work in the industrial sector, mostly in small companies.


Geography

Court has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 34.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 60.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 4.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.9% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
During the same year, housing and buildings made up 2.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.7%. Out of the forested land, 56.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 4.1% is used for growing crops and 8.8% is pastures and 21.3% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. It consists of the Court is a
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)= ...
in the eastern portion of the ''Vallée de Tavannes'' and along the entrance to the Court Canyon through which the Birs River runs. It also includes about a dozen isolated farm houses in le Chaluet, on Graitery, on Mont Girod and in Montoz. The municipalities of Bévilard, Court, Malleray, Pontenet and Sorvilier are considering a merger on 1 January 2015 into the new municipality of Valbirse.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 14 January 2013
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.
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 ''Azure a Horn Or ringed Argent and stringed Gules and a Chief of the first three pales Or.''


Demographics

Court has a population () of . , 6.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of -0.8%. Migration accounted for -0.3%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.1%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 17 June 2013
Most of the population () speaks French (1,202 or 89.1%) 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 (89 or 6.6%) and Portuguese is the third (14 or 1.0%). There are 13 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 3 people who speak Romansh. , the population was 48.7% male and 51.3% female. The population was made up of 643 Swiss men (46.2% of the population) and 36 (2.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 667 Swiss women (47.9%) and 47 (3.4%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012
Of the population in the municipality, 630 or about 46.7% were born in Court and lived there in 2000. There were 343 or 25.4% who were born in the same canton, while 190 or 14.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 144 or 10.7% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 56.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.9%. , there were 527 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 656 married individuals, 112 widows or widowers and 54 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 170 households that consist of only one person and 46 households with five or more people. , a total of 541 apartments (87.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 35 apartments (5.6%) were seasonally occupied and 46 apartments (7.4%) 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 1.4 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 6.42%. 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:1600 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:300 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:60 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1629 from:start till:314 text:"314" bar:1850 from:start till:581 text:"581" bar:1860 from:start till:603 text:"603" bar:1870 from:start till:553 text:"553" bar:1880 from:start till:689 text:"689" bar:1888 from:start till:803 text:"803" bar:1900 from:start till:1082 text:"1,082" bar:1910 from:start till:1207 text:"1,207" bar:1920 from:start till:1292 text:"1,292" bar:1930 from:start till:1200 text:"1,200" bar:1941 from:start till:1278 text:"1,278" bar:1950 from:start till:1355 text:"1,355" bar:1960 from:start till:1493 text:"1,493" bar:1970 from:start till:1550 text:"1,550" bar:1980 from:start till:1480 text:"1,480" bar:1990 from:start till:1396 text:"1,396" bar:2000 from:start till:1349 text:"1,349"


Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 45.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Social Democratic Party (SP) (16.3%), another local party (11%) and the FDP.The Liberals (8.1%). In the federal election, a total of 367 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 35.9%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012


Economy

, Court had an unemployment rate of 1.75%. , there were a total of 669 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 76 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 27 businesses involved in this sector. 432 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 36 businesses in this sector. 161 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 39 businesses in this sector. There were 675 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.7% of the workforce. there were a total of 548
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 55, of which 40 were in agriculture and 15 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 367 of which 350 or (95.4%) were in manufacturing and 17 (4.6%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 126. In the tertiary sector; 18 or 14.3% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 14 or 11.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 21 or 16.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 1.6% were in the information industry, 8 or 6.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 8 or 6.3% were in education and 21 or 16.7% were in health care. , there were 376 workers who commuted into the municipality and 286 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.3 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. A total of 389 workers (51.4% of the 757 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Court. About 2.1% of the workforce coming into Court are coming from outside Switzerland.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010
Of the working population, 5.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 56.1% used a private car. In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Court making 150,000 CHF was 13.3%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 19.5%. 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 590 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 185 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 5 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Court was 114,484 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF.


Religion

From the , 714 or 52.9% 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 273 or 20.2% 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 were 200 individuals (or about 14.83% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 22 (or about 1.63% 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. 98 (or about 7.26% 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 42 individuals (or about 3.11% of the population) did not answer the question.


Education

In Court about 56.8% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 9.1% 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 78 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 50.0% were Swiss men, 35.9% were Swiss women, 9.0% were non-Swiss men. 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 112 students attending classes in Court. There were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 31 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 6.5% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 12.9% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 4 primary classes and 81 students. Of the primary students, 4.9% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 7.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2011/12 pdf document
accessed 9 May 2013
, there were a total of 101 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 101 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 94 students from Court attended schools outside the municipality. During the same year, 94 residents attended schools outside the municipality.


Transportation

The municipality has a railway station, . The station is located on the Sonceboz-Sombeval–Moutier line and has regular service to and .


References


External links

*http://www.court.ch * {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern