Ins (; ) 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 Seeland administrative district in the canton of

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

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

Ins is first mentioned in 1009 as ''Anestre''. In 1179 it was mentioned as ''Anes''. The area around Ins has been inhabited since at least the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

. On Schaltenrain hill, individual graves and groups of grave mounds have been found stretching over of the hill. At least four different sites have been discovered. The first excavation was carried out under the direction of Gustav von Bonstetten in 1848, who placed his discoveries in the Historical Museum of Berne. In the following year, Emanuel F. Müller excavated other sites on the hill. The third large excavation was in 1908-09 under Jakob Heierli, who placed his finds in the Museum Schwab in Bienne. Due to the number and variety of artifacts, smaller sites and individual items continue to be discovered. Bonstetten's excavations discovered a minimum of ten grave mounds, in height, arraigned in a line. The sixth mound contained two Hallstatt "wagon graves" (graves containing wagons or parts of a wagon) from the 7th century BC. Golden objects found in this mound and other nearby mounds show an Etruscan influence or were produced on the Italian peninsula and traded. In addition to gold and the wagons, jewelry made from glass, amber, lignite, pearls and bronze were found. An early La Tène iron sword from the 5th century BC was also found. The richness of the finds and the relatively long settlement duration indicates that this was a wealthy and successful settlement that traded with the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

. During the

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 ...

there was a wide band of settlements that stretched from the Grosses Moos marsh up into the

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 ...

covered hills. A

Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

ran through the march and connected the settlements with the Roman towns of the Swiss Plateau. During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

Fenis Castle, the seat of the Counts of Fenis, was built on the Hasenburg which is now part of the municipality of Ins. During the

Late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

the village was part of the ''

Herrschaft The German term ''Herrschaft'' (plural: ''Herrschaften'') covers a broad semantic field and only the context will tell whether it means, "rule", "power", "dominion", "authority", "territory" or "lordship". In its most abstract sense, it refers ...

'' of Erlach. During the

Burgundian Wars The Burgundian Wars (1474–1477) were a conflict between the Burgundian State and the Old Swiss Confederacy and its allies. Open war broke out in 1474, and the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was defeated three times on the battlefield in th ...

, the village along with the Herrschaft of Erlach was annexed by

. Under the new Bernese

Bailiwick A bailiwick () is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and once also applied to territories in which a privately appointed bailiff exercised the sheriff's functions under a royal or imperial writ. In English, the original French combi ...

of Erlach, Ins remained an important regional administration center. The former village church of St. Mary was first mentioned as a romanesque building in 1228. However, since it was located close to an early medieval cemetery, it was probably built over or near an earlier church. It was rebuilt in the 16th and 17th centuries. The church's patronage rights were held by the Cathedral of Bern until 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 ...

ended it in the 16th century. Historically the village was surrounded by extensive

s. The nearby Grosses Moos marsh was a source of

peat Peat is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. ''Sphagnum'' moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most ...

from the 18th until the early 20th century. The village was a regional administration and financial center. The old Rathaus was used as the seat of the low court until it burned down in 1848. The village ''Landgerichtsplatz'' held the stone ''Landstuhl'' for the Landvogt and benches for his court. A

tithe barn A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing rents and tithes. Farmers were required to give one-tenth of their produce to the established church. Tithe barns were usually associated with the ...

was built in 1680 for 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 ...

. During the 17th and 18th century wealthy landowners built elegant manor houses in the village, including the Schlössli, Lilienhof, Altes Spital and Wagnerhaus.

Geography

Ins has an area of . Of this area, or 66.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 21.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 9.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.6% is either rivers or lakes and or 1.3% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data . Retrieved 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.0%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 59.7% is used for growing crops and 6.1% is pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.4% is in lakes and 1.2% is in rivers and streams. Ins is located on the southern slope of the Schaltenrain () and stretches over part of the '' Grand Marais'', a particularly productive area with nearly black soil in the Bernese Seeland. On the south it is bordered by Lake Neuchatel and the Broye Canal. It includes the settlement of Witzwil im Moos and several scattered, individual farm houses. Despite being a small municipality, Ins serves as a center for the neighbouring communities, which are even smaller in both population and area. Ins lies at the end of the Bienne- Täuffelen-Ins (BTI) rail line, and is also served by the Ins- Erlach postbus. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Erlach, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Seeland.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
. Retrieved 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 ''Or a Mullet Gules between a Ploughshare Azure in bend and a Sickle of the same in bend sinister and Mount of 3 Coupeaux Vert.''

Demographics

Ins has a population () of . , 15.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
. Retrieved 4 January 2012 Over the last 10 years (2000-2010) the population has changed at a rate of 16.2%. Migration accounted for 15.3%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.7%.
. Retrieved 2 November 2012 Most of the population () speaks German (2,685 or 91.1%) as their first language, French is the second most common (105 or 3.6%) and Albanian is the third (28 or 1.0%). There are 21 people who speak Italian and 3 people who speak Romansh. , the population was 47.8% male and 52.2% female. The population was made up of 1,283 Swiss men (39.7% of the population) and 259 (8.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,461 Swiss women (45.2%) and 22 (0.7%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 990 or about 33.6% were born in Ins and lived there in 2000. There were 978 or 33.2% who were born in the same canton, while 558 or 18.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 323 or 11.0% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.2%. , there were 1,235 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,437 married individuals, 175 widows or widowers and 100 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000
. Retrieved 2 February 2011 , there were 334 households that consist of only one person and 73 households with five or more people. , a total of 1,104 apartments (90.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 67 apartments (5.5%) were seasonally occupied and 44 apartments (3.6%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB – Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 – Gebäude und Wohnungen
. Retrieved 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 13 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.06%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1200 height:210 PlotArea = top:10 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:3000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:600 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:120 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1700 from:start till:740 text:"740" bar:1730 from:start till:864 text:"864" bar:1764 from:start till:723 text:"723" bar:1818 from:start till:1041 text:"1,041" bar:1850 from:start till:1378 text:"1,378" bar:1860 from:start till:1415 text:"1,415" bar:1870 from:start till:1518 text:"1,518" bar:1880 from:start till:1453 text:"1,453" bar:1888 from:start till:1339 text:"1,339" bar:1900 from:start till:1537 text:"1,537" bar:1910 from:start till:1725 text:"1,725" bar:1920 from:start till:1941 text:"1,941" bar:1930 from:start till:2083 text:"2,083" bar:1941 from:start till:2054 text:"2,054" bar:1950 from:start till:2233 text:"2,233" bar:1960 from:start till:2486 text:"2,486" bar:1970 from:start till:2435 text:"2,435" bar:1980 from:start till:2608 text:"2,608" bar:1990 from:start till:2683 text:"2,683" bar:2000 from:start till:2947 text:"2,947"

Heritage sites of national significance

The Albert Anker house, the farm house Himmelriich and the earthen fortifications at Fenis are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire village of Ins is 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 ...

. File:2005-Ins-Ankerhaus.jpg, Albert Anker House File:Bauernhaus_Ins_(2).jpg, Farm House (Himmelriich) File:Gemeindehaus Ins BE.jpg, Parish Hall in Ins BE

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 30.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Social Democratic Party (SP) (18.7%), the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (17.2%) and the Green Party (11.3%). In the federal election, a total of 1,237 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 55.2%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
. Retrieved 8 May 2012

Economy

, Ins had an unemployment rate of 1.51%. , there were a total of 1,487 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 234 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 57 businesses involved in this sector. 231 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 31 businesses in this sector. 1,022 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 127 businesses in this sector. There were 1,526 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.2% of the workforce. there were a total of 1,174

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 186, of which 181 were in agriculture and 5 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 215 of which 84 or (39.1%) were in manufacturing and 128 (59.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 773. In the tertiary sector; 247 or 32.0% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 63 or 8.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 21 or 2.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 15 or 1.9% were in the information industry, 16 or 2.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 87 or 11.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 35 or 4.5% were in education and 211 or 27.3% were in health care. , there were 589 workers who commuted into the municipality and 832 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb
. Retrieved 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 18.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 43.3% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 344 or 11.7% 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 2,115 or 71.8% 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 22 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.75% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.07% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 109 individuals (or about 3.70% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was

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 95 (or about 3.22% 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 ...

, 2 individuals who were

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 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 219 (or about 7.43% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic 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 80 individuals (or about 2.71% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Ins about 1,118 or (37.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 398 or (13.5%) 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 398 who completed tertiary schooling, 69.1% were Swiss men, 21.6% were Swiss women, 6.0% were non-Swiss men and 3.3% were non-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 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 625 students attending classes in Ins. There were 3 kindergarten classes with a total of 69 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 14.5% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 21.7% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 12 primary classes and 244 students. Of the primary students, 14.3% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 16.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 12 lower secondary classes with a total of 240 students. There were 10.8% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 17.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
. Retrieved 4 January 2012 , there were 174 students in Ins who came from another municipality, while 75 residents attended schools outside the municipality. Ins is home to the ''Bibliothek Ins'' library. The library has () 8,573 books or other media, and loaned out 33,937 items in the same year. It was open a total of 204 days with average of 23 hours per week during that year.
. Retrieved 14 May 2010

Transportation

The municipality has two railway stations, and . The first of these is an interchange on the standard gauge Bern–Neuchâtel and Fribourg–Ins lines and the narrow-gauge Biel–Täuffelen–Ins line. It has regular service to , , , , and . Ins Dorf is located in the centre of Ins on the Biel–Täuffelen–Ins line

Famous residents

The Swiss painter and illustrator Albert Anker lived in Ins until his death in 1910.

References

External links

Official website
* * {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern