Savièse 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
Sion in the
canton of
Valais 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
Savièse is first mentioned in 1200 as ''Saviesi''. In 1224 it was mentioned as ''Savisia''. The municipality was formerly known by its German name ''Safiesch'', however, that name is no longer used.
[
]
Geography
Savièse has an area, , of . Of this area, or 21.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 15.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 4.7% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 57.1% 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 2.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.4%. Out of the forested land, 12.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.8% is pastures, while 4.7% is used for orchards or vine crops and 12.7% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.6% is in lakes and 0.6% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 9.8% is unproductive vegetation, 42.8% is too rocky for vegetation and 4.6% of the land is covered by glaciers.[
The municipality is located in the Sion district, on the right side of the Rhone. This large municipality, which covers over half of the total area of the district, is bordered in the north by the ]Bernese Alps
The Bernese Alps are a mountain range of the Alps located in western Switzerland. Although the name suggests that they are located in the Berner Oberland region of the canton of Bern, portions of the Bernese Alps are in the adjacent cantons of Va ...
and is connected to the Saanenland by the Sanetsch Pass. It consists of the six villages of Saint-Germain (the capital of the municipality), Chandolin, Granois, Drône, Roumaz and Ormone as well as multiple 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 ...
.
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, a Sword Argent hilted Or.''
Demographics
Savièse has a population () of . , 10.1% 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 18.1%. It has changed at a rate of 14.4% due to migration and at a rate of 3.6% due to births and deaths.
accessed 26-September-2011[
, the population was 48.8% male and 51.2% female. The population was made up of 2,743 Swiss men (43.1% of the population) and 363 (5.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 2,907 Swiss women (45.7%) and 352 (5.5%) non-Swiss women.][Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls]
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 3,142 or about 58.8% were born in Savièse and lived there in 2000. There were 1,027 or 19.2% who were born in the same canton, while 527 or 9.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 466 or 8.7% 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 62.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 14.8%.][
, there were 2,097 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,738 married individuals, 344 widows or widowers and 162 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 1,878 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household.[ There were 458 households that consist of only one person and 123 households with five or more people. , a total of 1,839 apartments (93.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 114 apartments (5.8%) were seasonally occupied and 21 apartments (1.1%) 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 new units per 1000 residents.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.53%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 36.95% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (18.65%), the SVP (18.52%) and the FDP (15.48%). In the federal election, a total of 3,041 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 68.4%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 2,743 votes were cast, of which 240 or about 8.7% were invalid. The voter participation was 60.6%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 3,015 votes were cast, of which 196 or about 6.5% were invalid. The voter participation was 68.5%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Savièse had an unemployment rate of 3.2%. , there were 340 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 194 businesses involved in this sector. 366 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 54 businesses in this sector. 616 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 128 businesses in this sector.[ There were 2,655 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.6% 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 980. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 203, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 339 of which 165 or (48.7%) were in manufacturing and 174 (51.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 438. In the tertiary sector; 92 or 21.0% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 25 or 5.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 48 or 11.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 9 or 2.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 28 or 6.4% were technical professionals or scientists, 42 or 9.6% were in education and 87 or 19.9% were in health care.
, there were 193 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,854 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 9.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 8.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 78.2% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 4,616 or 86.4% 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 250 or 4.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 17 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.32% of the population), and there were 109 individuals (or about 2.04% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 29 (or about 0.54% 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 5 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 ...
and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 154 (or about 2.88% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 212 individuals (or about 3.97% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Savièse about 1,814 or (34.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 664 or (12.4%) 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''). Of the 664 who completed tertiary schooling, 63.6% were Swiss men, 27.1% were Swiss women, 3.9% were non-Swiss men and 5.4% were non-Swiss women.[
, there were 10 students in Savièse who came from another municipality, while 233 residents attended schools outside the municipality.][
Savièse is home to the ''Bibliothèque communale'' library. The library has () 9,854 books or other media, and loaned out 20,754 items in the same year. It was open a total of 300 days with average of 14 hours per week during that year.
]
Cultural Heritage
Build since 1430, the Torrent-Neuf is a canal pound
A canal pound (from impound), reach, or level (American usage), is the stretch of level water impounded between two canal locks. Canal pounds can vary in length from the non-existent, where two or more immediately adjacent locks form a canal lock# ...
located in Savièse. After successive renovations, it was closed and was no longer in use since 1934. In 2005, it was renovated by the municipality and the ''Association pour la sauvegarde du Torrent-Neuf'' and since then has become one of the most visited tourist attraction
A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement.
Types
Places of natural beaut ...
of Savièse.
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saviese
Municipalities of Valais