Saint-Léonard 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
Sierre in the
canton of
Valais
Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...
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 ...
. The
Saint-Léonard underground lake situated there is a tourist attraction.
History
Saint-Léonard is first mentioned in 1218 as ''apud Sanctum Leonardum''. The municipality was formerly known by its German name ''St. Leonhard'', however, that name is no longer used.
[
]
Geography
Saint-Léonard has an area, , of . Of this area, or 46.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 15.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 28.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 3.8% is either rivers or lakes and or 4.4% is unproductive land.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 9.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 13.1%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 3.3% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.8%. Out of the forested land, 13.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.6% is used for growing crops and 4.6% is pastures, while 36.7% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 2.8% is unproductive vegetation and 1.5% is too rocky for vegetation.[
The municipality is located in the Sierre district. The original ''haufendorf'' village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) was located on the left side of the Lienne and along the right side of the Rhone valley. By the middle of the 20th Century, it had spread out into the valley floor.
]
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, issuant from Coupeaux Vert a Pine tree of the same trunked proper between in chief two Mullets of Five Or.''
Demographics
Saint-Léonard has a population () of . , 13.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008]
accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 10.7%. It has changed at a rate of 8% due to migration and at a rate of 2.7% due to births and deaths.
accessed 23-September-2011German
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 (53 or 2.8%) and Portuguese is the third (38 or 2.0%). There are 20 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 1 person who speaks Romansh.[
, the population was 48.7% male and 51.3% female. The population was made up of 864 Swiss men (41.3% of the population) and 155 (7.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 912 Swiss women (43.6%) and 163 (7.8%) non-Swiss women.][Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls]
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 987 or about 52.7% were born in Saint-Léonard and lived there in 2000. There were 531 or 28.4% who were born in the same canton, while 117 or 6.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 191 or 10.2% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 24.5% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15%.][
, there were 718 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 973 married individuals, 103 widows or widowers and 78 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 712 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household.[ There were 169 households that consist of only one person and 54 households with five or more people. , a total of 680 apartments (91.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 51 apartments (6.9%) were seasonally occupied and 9 apartments (1.2%) 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 2.9 new units per 1000 residents.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.61%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Heritage sites of national significance
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 ...
rock carving at Crête Des Barmes is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
Sights
Château Sonvillaz was rebuilt and restored in 1562–1565. It is currently owned by the Hefti-Rossier family.
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 36.76% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (31.46%), the SP (15.06%) and the SVP (9.58%). In the federal election, a total of 1,053 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 72.6%.
Economy
, Saint-Léonard had an unemployment rate of 3.6%. , there were 69 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 22 businesses involved in this sector. 94 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 15 businesses in this sector. 287 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 46 businesses in this sector.[ There were 892 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.5% of the workforce.
the total number of ]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 was 355. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 40, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 87 of which 20 or (23.0%) were in manufacturing, 21 or (24.1%) were in mining and 45 (51.7%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 228. In the tertiary sector; 67 or 29.4% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 16 or 7.0% were in the movement and storage of goods, 39 or 17.1% were in a hotel or restaurant, 10 or 4.4% were in the information industry, 11 or 4.8% were the insurance or financial industry, 8 or 3.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 3 or 1.3% were in education and 54 or 23.7% were in health care.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
accessed 28 January 2011
, there were 223 workers who commuted into the municipality and 656 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 7.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 74.1% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 1,688 or 90.2% 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 ...
, while 46 or 2.5% 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 11 individuals (or about 0.59% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 20 individuals (or about 1.07% 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 18 (or about 0.96% 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 2 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 ...
. 31 (or about 1.66% 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 64 individuals (or about 3.42% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Saint-Léonard about 645 or (34.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 178 or (9.5%) 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 178 who completed tertiary schooling, 65.2% were Swiss men, 27.5% were Swiss women, 3.4% were non-Swiss men and 3.9% were non-Swiss women.[
, there were 18 students in Saint-Léonard who came from another municipality, while 131 residents attended schools outside the municipality.][
]
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:S Leonard
Municipalities of Valais
Cultural property of national significance in Valais