Martigny
Martigny is the capital city of the district of Martigny, canton of Valais, Switzerland. It lies at an elevation of, and its population is approximately 20,000 inhabitants. It is a junction of roads joining Italy, France and Switzerland. One road links it over the Great St. Bernard Pass to Aosta, and the other over the col de la Forclaz to Chamonix. In winter, Martigny is known for its numerous nearby Alp ski resorts such as Verbier.
Geography
Martigny lies at an elevation of, about south-southeast of Montreux. It is on the left foothills of the steep hillsides of the Rhone Valley, at the foot of the Swiss Alps, and is located at the point where the southwestern-flowing Rhone turns ninety degrees northward and heads toward Lake Geneva. The river La Drance flows from the southern Valais Alps through Martigny and joins the Rhone from the left just after Rhone's distinctive, almost rectangular change in direction.Martigny has an area,, of. Of this area, 31.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 39.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 23.3% is settled and 5.3% is unproductive land.
In 1964 the current municipality was created with the merger of Martigny-Ville and Martigny-Bourg.
On 1 January 2021 the former municipality of Charrat merged into the municipality of Martigny.
History
The Gaulish name of the settlement in the 1st century BC was either Octodurus or Octodurum, an oppidum or vicus of the Veragri.Octodurus was conquered by the Roman Republic in 57 BC, and occupied by Servius Galba with the twelfth legion and some cavalry in order to protect the strategically important pass of Poeninus, by which road the mercatores had used to travel at great risk as well as paying great tolls. Galba, after capturing many local strongholds and receiving the submission of the people, sent troops into the country of the Nantuates, and with his remaining army determined to winter in Octodurus. Galba gave one part of the town to the Gauls to winter in, and assigned the other to his troops. He fortified himself with a ditch and rampart, and thought he was safe. He was, however, suddenly attacked by the Gauls before his defences were complete or all his supplies were brought into the camp, resulting in the Battle of Octodurus, and a very indecisive Roman victory; the Romans estimated the Gaulish force at more than 30,000, and Caesar says that more than a third part were destroyed; nevertheless Galba, "declining to try fortune too often", burned the hamlet and retreated to the Province the next day.
Octodurus was later on joined to the Roman Empire, as part of the Alpes Poeninae province. Pliny says that the Octodurenses received the Latinitas. Octodurus declined over the following decades, and between AD 41 and 47, a new Roman colony named Forum Claudii Augusti, later renamed 'to Forum Claudii Vallensium, was established nearby to take the role of capital of the Vallis Poenina province. The town appears in the Antonine Itinerary and in the Tabula Peutingeriana. In the Notit. Prov., the place is called Civitas Vallensium Octodurus. At a later period it was called Forum Claudii Vallensium Octodurensium, as an inscription shows.
An episcopal see was established here in the 4th century, making the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sion the oldest bishopric in what is now Switzerland. The first historically attested bishop of Octodurus was Theodulus, who was present at the Council of Aquileia in 381. A restored Roman amphitheatre, temples, citizen living quarters, and thermal baths can be seen in Martigny today. One authority speaks of the remains of a Roman aqueduct at Martigny. Many coins, and other memorials of the Roman time, have been found about the place.
There are no records of the town during the early medieval period. In the Middle Ages, the town took Martin of Tours as its patron saint, and became known by the German name Martinach, recorded in Latinized form as Martiniacum in 1018. The church of Martigny, presumably at the site of the ancient cathedral, was consecrated to St. Mary in 1177, and to Notre-Dame-des-Champs in 1420. Martigny was placed under the protection of the House of Savoy in 1351, passing to Saint-Maurice in 1475, as the seven tithings in treaty with the bishop of Sion and the canton of Bern seized all of the Lower Valais. The town was granted a degree of autonomy, its citizens being allowed to elect their own local officials, known as the syndics.
File:CH-NB - Martigny - Collection Gugelmann - GS-GUGE-30-23.tif.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Martigny in 1820, lithograph illustrated by James Pattison Cockburn, printed by James Duffield Harding
The economy of Martigny was traditionally based on agriculture and viticulture. The town was often flooded by the Dranse, most severely in 1595 and in 1818. From 1798 to 1802, Martigny was part of the imperialist Napoleonic Republic of Valais, then in the Rhodanic Republic, which passed to France from 1810 to 1814. The Valais/Wallis passed to Switzerland in 1815. In the 1840s, Martigny was the stage of a confrontation between the liberal-radical "Young Switzerland" and the conservative "Old Switzerland" movements, culminating in the Battle at the Trient of 21 May 1844, taking place a few kilometres outside town. The town was split into independent municipalities of Martigny-Ville, Charrat, Martigny-Bourg and Martigny-Combe in the 1830s. La Bâtiaz and Trient were further split off Martigny-Combe in 1845 and 1899, respectively. This administrative fragmentation of the town was reversed in the 20th century, with a fusion of Martigny-Ville with La Bâtiaz in 1956 and with Martigny-Bourg in 1964.
Martigny was connected to the Simplon railway in 1878, with a separate railway station built in 1906. It was connected to the Swiss motorway system in 1981 with the completion of the Great-St-Bernard exit of the A9. Martigny had a population of 2,545 in 1850, of 3,550 in 1900 and of 5,915 in 1950.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is ''Gules, a lion rampant argent bearing a hammer or.''Demographics
Martigny has a population of. , 30.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. During 2000–2010, the population has increased at a rate of 13.1%. It has changed at a rate of 6.7% due to migration and at a rate of 3.5% due to births and deaths.Most of the population speaks French as their first language, Portuguese is the second most common and Italian is the third. There are 227 people who speak German and 9 people who speak Romansh.
, the gender distribution of the population was 48.7% male and 51.3% female. The population was made up of 5,114 Swiss men and 2,566 non-Swiss men. There were 5,830 Swiss women and 2,268 non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 5,162 or about 35.9% were born in Martigny and lived there in 2000. There were 3,554 or 24.7% who were born in the same canton, while 1,439 or 10.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 3,694 or 25.7% were born outside of Switzerland.
The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers make up 23.8% of the population, while adults make up 61.3% and seniors make up 14.8%.
, there were 5,918 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 6,723 married individuals, 922 widows or widowers and 798 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 6,001 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 2,211 households that consist of only one person and 385 households with five or more people. , a total of 5,766 apartments were permanently occupied, while 900 apartments were seasonally occupied and 168 apartments were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 6.2 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality,, was 2.72%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
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bar:1850 from:start till:2545 text:"2,545"
bar:1860 from:start till:2992 text:"2,992"
bar:1870 from:start till:3083 text:"3,083"
bar:1880 from:start till:3244 text:"3,244"
bar:1888 from:start till:3208 text:"3,208"
bar:1900 from:start till:3550 text:"3,550"
bar:1910 from:start till:4892 text:"4,892"
bar:1920 from:start till:4801 text:"4,801"
bar:1930 from:start till:4828 text:"4,828"
bar:1941 from:start till:5507 text:"5,507"
bar:1950 from:start till:5915 text:"5,915"
bar:1960 from:start till:7593 text:"7,593"
bar:1970 from:start till:10478 text:"10,478"
bar:1980 from:start till:11309 text:"11,309"
bar:1990 from:start till:13481 text:"13,481"
bar:2000 from:start till:14361 text:"14,361"
bar:2010 from:start till:16143 text:"16,143"
bar:2020 from:start till:18269 text:"18,269"