Göschenen (, ) is a village and

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 canton of Uri 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 sits at the northern end of the Gotthard tunnel. The Göschenen riots (1875) saw Urner troops opening fire on Italian miners demonstrating for better working conditions and wages on the tunnel's construction site.

Name

Göschenen is first mentioned in 1280 as ''Gesschenden''. The name is from Rumantsch ''*cascina'' (modern ''caschigna'') "alpine hut", from Latin ''capsum'' "corral", but influenced by the word for cheese, ''cascio''. The ''e'' in the first syllable is due to Germanic i-umlaut, changed to ''ö'' in modern spelling is a

hypercorrection In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is the nonstandard use of language that results from the overapplication of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a ...

based on the phonology of the dialect of Uri.

Geography

Göschenen has an area, , of . Of this area, 7.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 11.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.9% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (80.4%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). , 5.1% of the total land area was heavily forested, while 5.5% is covered in small trees and shrubbery. Of the agricultural land, 0.0% is used for farming or pastures, while 0.7% is used for orchards or vine crops and 6.6% is used for alpine pastures. Of the settled areas, 0.1% is covered with buildings, 0.3% is classed as special developments, and 0.5% is transportation infrastructure. Of the unproductive areas, 1.3% is unproductive standing water (ponds or lakes), 0.9% is unproductive flowing water (rivers), 62.8% is too rocky for vegetation, and 15.4% is other unproductive land.Canton Uri - Ground use statistics
accessed 8 September 2009 Göschenen and its

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

are located at the northern end of the Gotthard Road Tunnel and the Gotthard Rail Tunnel. The village grew up around a bridge over the Reuss. The Schöllenen Gorge in the Reuss Valley between

Andermatt Andermatt () is a mountain village and municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the canton of Uri in Switzerland. At an elevation of above sea level, Andermatt is located at the center of the Saint-Gotthard Massif and the historical center ...

and Göschenen is the location of the infamous

Devil's Bridge Devil's Bridge is a term applied to dozens of ancient bridges, found primarily in Europe. Most of these bridges are stone or masonry arch bridges and represent a significant technological achievement in ancient architecture. Due to their unusu ...

. A very short railway line, the Schöllenenbahn, connects Göschenen railway station with Andermatt railway station, via the Schöllenen Gorge. Until 1875 it was part of the municipality of Wassen. It consists of the village of Göschenen and the

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 ...

of Abfrutt and the Göscheneralp.

Demographics

Göschenen has a population (as of ) of . , 4.2% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -26.9%. Most of the population () speaks German (94.9%), with Portuguese being second most common ( 2.0%) and Spanish being third ( 1.2%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 09-Sep-2009 the gender distribution of the population was 49.3% male and 50.7% female.Uri Population statistics
accessed 8 September 2009 In the 2007 federal election the FDP party received 90.4% of the vote. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Göschenen about 58.4% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university 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 ...

''). Göschenen has an unemployment rate of 0.81%. , there were 34 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 10 businesses involved in this sector. 75 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 4 businesses in this sector. 96 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 17 businesses in this sector. The historical population is given in the following table:Uri in Numbers 2009/10 edition
accessed 8 September 2009 : Population increase due to construction of the Gotthard rail tunnel.

Weather

Göschenen has an average of 151.4 days of rain per year and on average receives of precipitation. The wettest month is April during which time Göschenen receives an average of of precipitation. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 14.2 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is May, with an average of 15.3, but with only of precipitation. The driest month of the year is September with an average of of precipitation over 14.2 days., the weather station elevation is 1099 meters above sea level.

References

External links

* *
Wages Switzerland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goschenen Municipalities of the canton of Uri