Saint-Imier
Saint-Imier is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura.
The Observatoire Astronomique de Mont-Soleil is located above the village.
History
Saint-Imier is first mentioned in 884 as cella de sancti Himerii. The municipality was formerly known by its German name St. Immer, however, that name is no longer used. Its name refers to Imerius of Immertal, a 7th-century saint.According to the legend of St. Imerius, he settled in the valley as a hermit in the late 6th or early 7th century on a piece of land that bishop Marius of Lausanne gave him as a present. In 884 a cella was mentioned on the site. Archeological excavations around the former Church of St. Martin indicate that a village grew up around the cella around the same time. Two of the 142 graves from the church have been dated to the Early Middle Ages and the church was rebuilt at least three times before the 14th or early 15th century.
In 884 the cella with its outbuildings belonged to Moutier-Grandval Abbey. In 999, the Abbey donated Saint-Imier and a number of surrounding villages to the Prince-Bishop of Basel. In 1264, the Bishop appointed Otto of Arguel as the vogt over the Saint-Imier valley fief. Otto raised the valley to become a seigniory and parish of the Diocese of Basel. By the end of the 15th century, Saint-Imier included the villages of Villeret, Sonvilier, Renan and La Ferriere.
Even though the physical valley was owned by the Bishop of Basel, religiously it was part of the Diocese of Lausanne. The Saint-Imier parish was probably founded in the 9th or 10th century. A village chapel was first mentioned in 968, with the parish church of St. Martin first appearing in the records in 1228. The church of St. Martin was later rebuilt in the gothic style. Another church, the collegiate church was built in the 11th century, probably under the direction of the Bishop of Basel. In 1530, Biel encouraged Saint-Imier to embrace the Protestant Reformation and convert to the new religion. The collegiate church before the parish church for the new Reformed parish. Over the following centuries, the Church of St. Martin was used less and less until it was demolished in 1828. In 1814 the town and the surrounding valley transferred from Lausanne to the Diocese of Basel. Catholic church services resumed in Saint-Imier in 1857 and in 1866 the neo-gothic Church of St. Martin was built. In 1912 a Christian Catholic church was built in the town.
In 1792 Théodore Frédéric Louis Liomin, the vogt or bailiff of Saint-Imier, threw his support behind the revolutionary movement that was sweeping the region. After the 1797 French victory and the Treaty of Campo Formio, Saint-Imier became part of the French Département of Mont-Terrible. Three years later, in 1800 it became part of the Département of Haut-Rhin. After Napoleon's defeat and the Congress of Vienna, Saint-Imier was assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815.
During the 19th century the anti-authoritarian or anarchist movement gained a foothold in the region. In 1872, the Jura Federation, which had strong support in Saint-Imier, organized a congress in Saint-Imier at which the Anti-authoritarian International was founded.
During the 18th century the inhabitants of the valley gradually gave up agriculture in favor of more lucrative jobs in the watch and lace-making industries. The first watch parts workshop opened in the 1720s and the industry continued to expand throughout the 19th century. By 1817 there were about 200 workers employed in either watchmaking workshops or small shops at home. The small scale workshops were replaced by large factory work, when Longines opened a factory in the town in 1867. By the end of the year, 1,600 people were employed in 47 watchmaking companies. Because the town's economy was so dependent on watchmaking, the economic crisis of the 1930s and the 1970s hit Saint-Imier hard. By the beginning of the 21st century, there were about ten watchmaking companies and the economy had diversified to include dental and medical technology and meteorology.
Portions of the town were destroyed by fire in 1839, 1843 and 1856. A hospital opened in Saint-Imier in 1856. In 1874 the town was connected to the Swiss rail network. The town's infrastructure was modernized early, before 1900 it had municipal water, gas and electricity. Saint-Imier has grown into a regional education center. The town's secondary school opened in 1860, followed by a watchmaker's school in 1866. The watch-maker's school was expanded into a machinist's school in 1896 and a technical vocational school in 1961. In 1976 it became a school of engineering and in 2005 it was integrated into the Haute école Arc/Hochschule Arc. A number of other schools opened in the town including the Bernese Jura Music School, a vocational and technical school, and a training center for health professionals.
On 31 December 2009, the district of Courtelary, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, a new district of Jura bernois was created, which includes all of the former Courtelary District, as well as the former district of La Neuveville and the area around Tavannes.
Anarchy 2023
On 19 July 2023, thousands of anarchists began arriving in Saint-Imier to participate in an international anarchist gathering, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Saint-Imier Congress. The event included lectures, workshops, concerts, film screenings, theatre plays, exhibitions and a book fair. By the second day of the event, thousands of people had arrived in the town, causing logistical issues for the self-managed space. The event also caused some safety problems, as its campsite was located next to train tracks that campers often crossed over in order to get to the event location, despite attempts by the event organisers to stop them. In order to guarantee safety, the Swiss Federal Railways halted all rail traffic between Saint-Imier and La Chaux-de-Fonds over the weekend, organising replacement bus services in order to maintain the public transit network. The event would end up counting 5,000 attendees, mostly people in their early twenties, who were reportedly warmly welcomed by the town's population. Saint-Imier mayor Corentin Jeanneret reported that the event went largely smoothly, with the exception of a few cases of graffiti.Geography
Saint-Imier has an area of. Of this area, 49% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 40% is forested. Of the rest, 9.3% of the total is buildings or roads, and 0.7%of the total is unproductive.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 5.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.2%. Out of the forested land, 34% of the total land area is heavily forested and 6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.7% is used for growing crops and 20% is pastures and 27% is used for alpine pastures.
The municipality is located in the Saint-Imier valley along the Suze river and on the Biel/Bienne-La Chaux-de-Fonds road.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is ''Sable two Pales Or and overall on a Bar Argent a Mullet of Five Gules.''Demographics
Saint-Imier has a population of. , 23.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has changed at a rate of 4.2%. Migration accounted for 6.3%, while births and deaths accounted for -2.9%.Most of the population speaks French as their first language, German is the second most common and Italian is the third. There are 2 people who speak Romansh.
, the population was 48.1% male and 51.9% female. The population was made up of 1,682 Swiss men and 612 non-Swiss men. There were 1,947 Swiss women and 530 non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 1,486 or about 30.9% were born in Saint-Imier and lived there in 2000. There were 1,072 or 22.3% who were born in the same canton, while 1,040 or 21.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,028 or 21.4% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers make up 22.1% of the population, while adults make up 56.7% and seniors make up 21.2%.
, there were 1,842 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,242 married individuals, 447 widows or widowers and 276 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 916 households that consist of only one person and 86 households with five or more people. , a total of 2,190 apartments were permanently occupied, while 362 apartments were seasonally occupied and 223 apartments were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 1.3 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality,, was 4.5%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
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bar:1810 from:start till:900 text:"900"
bar:1839 from:start till:1800 text:"1,800"
bar:1850 from:start till:2632 text:"2,632"
bar:1860 from:start till:5057 text:"5,057"
bar:1870 from:start till:5662 text:"5,662"
bar:1880 from:start till:7033 text:"7,033"
bar:1888 from:start till:7557 text:"7,557"
bar:1900 from:start till:7455 text:"7,455"
bar:1910 from:start till:7442 text:"7,442"
bar:1920 from:start till:7011 text:"7,011"
bar:1930 from:start till:6504 text:"6,504"
bar:1941 from:start till:5716 text:"5,716"
bar:1950 from:start till:5972 text:"5,972"
bar:1960 from:start till:6704 text:"6,704"
bar:1970 from:start till:6740 text:"6,740"
bar:1980 from:start till:5430 text:"5,430"
bar:1990 from:start till:4921 text:"4,921"
bar:2000 from:start till:4807 text:"4,807"