Holderbank 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 district of
Lenzburg
Lenzburg is a town in the central region of the Switzerland, Swiss canton of Aargau and is the capital of the Lenzburg District. The town, founded in the Middle Ages, lies in the Seetal, Seetal valley, about 3 kilometres south of the Aare river. L ...
in the
canton
Canton may refer to:
Administrative divisions
* Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries
* Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French
Arts and entertainment
* Canton (band), an It ...
of
Aargau
Aargau ( ; ), more formally the Canton of Aargau (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capital is Aarau.
Aargau is one of the most nort ...
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
Archeological discoveries indicate that the area around Holderbank has been occupied since the
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 ...
era. Discoveries include; individual items from both the Neolithic and
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 ...
s,
Roman era
In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...
ruins and ceramics, and
Alamanni
The Alemanni or Alamanni were a confederation of Germanic tribes
*
*
*
on the Upper Rhine River during the first millennium. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Roman emperor Caracalla of 213 CE, the Alemanni c ...
graves. The modern municipality of Holderbank is first mentioned in 1259 as ''in Halderwange'' though this is from a 14th Century copy of the original. Around 1273 it was mentioned as ''de Halderwanch''.
[ Portions of the village were owned by ]Murbach Abbey
Murbach Abbey () was a famous Benedictine monastery in Murbach, southern Alsace, in a valley at the foot of the Grand Ballon in the Vosges.
The monastery was founded in 727 by Eberhard, Count of Alsace, and established as a Benedictine house ...
, though they sold their holdings to the Habsburgs
The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...
in 1291. The Habsburgs promptly transferred the land around Holderbank to their vassal
A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain ...
s the von Wildegg family. In addition to land, the von Wildeggs also acquired the right to low justice
High, middle and low justices are notions dating from Western feudalism to indicate descending degrees of judicial power to administer justice by the maximal punishment the holders could inflict upon their subjects and other dependents. The scale ...
in the village.
The 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 ...
in Holderbank is mentioned for the first time in 1275. It served as grave church for the '' Twingherren'' of Wildegg. They also held the rights to collect the church taxes until 1805 when they ceded those rights to the canton. After the Reformation
The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...
, in 1565 the villages of Möriken and Wildegg became part of the Holderbank 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 ...
. In 1701-02 the present church was built by Samuel Jenner.[
The municipality appears to have been small initially. There were only 10 fireplaces recorded in 1559 and only 11 in 1653. By 1595-96 it is unclear whether Holderbank was considered a village or just a farm. The inhabitants lived mainly from agriculture, though the ]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 ...
often washed away their land. Until the 19th Century there were vineyard
A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...
s in the village (about in 1764 and in 1880). In the 18th and 19th Centuries textile processing provided an additional income opportunity. From 1835 to about 1890 there was a cotton printing industry.
In 1858 a railway line was built through the village, though a train station was only added in 1999. In 1912 a lime
Lime most commonly refers to:
* Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit
* Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide
* Lime (color), a color between yellow and green
Lime may also refer to:
Bo ...
processing factory and a portland cement
Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar (masonry), mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in th ...
factory were built. An earthenware factory was founded in 1933, which produced until the 1970s. In 1950 three quarters of the workforce worked in the industrial sector, while in 2000 roughly three-fourths work in the services sector.[
]
Geography
Holderbank has an area, , of . Of this area, or 19.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 36.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 30.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 6.9% is either rivers or lakes and or 7.3% is unproductive land.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 6.5% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 10.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 8.2%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 3.9% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.3%. Out of the forested land, 32.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 6.0% is used for growing crops and 12.1% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 3.4% is unproductive vegetation and 3.9% is too rocky for vegetation.[
The municipality is located in the Lenzburg district. 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 Holderbank 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 Kernenberg (also known as Heilanstalt).
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 an Elder-tree proper issuant from a circular Bench Argent''. This is an example of canting
' (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: , Van Ophuijsen Spelling System, VOS Spelling: , ) is a pen-like tool used to apply liquid hot wax () in the batik-making process in Indonesia, more precisely (). Traditional consists of copper wax-con ...
with the elder tree
''Sambucus'' is a genus of between 20 and 30 species of flowering plants in the family Adoxaceae. The various species are commonly referred to as elder, with the flowers as elderflower, and the fruit as elderberry.
Description
Elders are mostl ...
() and the bench () symbolizing the name of the municipality."
Demographics
Holderbank has a population () of . , 24.5% of the population are foreign nationals.[Statistical Department of Canton Aargau -Bereich 01 -Bevölkerung]
accessed 20 January 2010 Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 4.4%. Most of the population () speaks German (83.7%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common ( 5.1%) and Italian being third ( 5.0%).
accessed 14-May-2010[Statistical Department of Canton Aargau -Bevölkerungsdaten für den Kanton Aargau und die Gemeinden (Archiv)]
accessed 20 January 2010
the average number of residents per living room was 0.55 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.57 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 59.4% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners t ...
or a rent-to-own
Rent-to-own, also known as rental purchase or rent-to-buy, is a type of legally documented transaction under which tangible property, such as furniture, consumer electronics, motor vehicles, home appliances, engagement rings, and real property, ...
agreement).
, there were 22 homes with 1 or 2 persons in the household, 176 homes with 3 or 4 persons in the household, and 115 homes with 5 or more persons in the household.[ , there were 320 private households (homes and apartments) in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household.][ there were 156 single family homes (or 38.1% of the total) out of a total of 409 homes and apartments.][Statistical Department of Canton Aargau]
accessed 20 January 2010 There were a total of 8 empty apartments for a 2.0% vacancy rate.[
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 58.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (11.2%), the FDP (10.4%) and the CVP (5.1%).][
The historical population is given in the following table:]
Economy
, Holderbank had an unemployment rate of 3.38%. , there were 14 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 3 businesses involved in this sector. 72 people are 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 are 12 businesses in this sector. 602 people are 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 28 businesses in this sector.[
there were 411 workers who lived in the municipality. Of these, 324 or about 78.8% of the residents worked outside Holderbank while 473 people commuted into the municipality for work. There were a total of 560 jobs (of at least 6 hours per week) in the municipality. Of the working population, 7.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 59% used a private car.][
]
Religion
From the , 231 or 28.7% 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 388 or 48.3% 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 ...
.[Statistical Department of Canton Aargau - Aargauer Zahlen 2009]
accessed 20 January 2010
Transport
Holderbank sits on the Baden–Aarau line and is served by trains at Holderbank railway station.
Education
The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Holderbank about 63.3% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either 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 ...
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 ...
'').[ Of the school age population (), there are 49 students attending ]primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...
in the municipality.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office, list of libraries]
accessed 14 May 2010
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of Aargau