Satigny
Satigny is a municipality of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It is the largest municipality of the canton by land area and the largest wine-producing municipality of the country. Its territory contains the majority of the Mandement area, a designated heritage site of national importance shared with the neighbouring municipalities of Russin and Dardagny.
Etymology
Satigny is first mentioned in 91 as villam Satiniatis, though this comes from a 12th Century copy of the earlier document. In around 1128 it was mentioned as de Satiniaco and in 1280 as Satignie. The name very likely origins in Gallo-Roman in reference of local Roman owners.The etymology of Peney on the other hand is different and subject to different interpretations. The first one is that it could come from the Latin "pinetum", which stands for "forest of pine trees", but it could also come from the Celtic roots of "pen" and "nec".
Bourdigny's name, for its part, also has a different origin, from the German-language Burgundians and the root is a surname such as "Bürdin", which later became "Burdignus" with the romanisation of region.
Finally, Montfleury's name is more anecdotal. This old grouping of houses without a particular denomination was first called "The Shacks". It was only in 1829 that, to oblige to the demand of its inhabitants, the hamlet changed its official name to "Montfleury".
Coat of arms and flag
Gules with a silver double-bladed key, alongside a sun to and a golden crescent.The coat of arms and the flag were adopted by the municipality on 8 September 1924 and approved by the cantonal executive government on 26 September 1924. The municipality of Satigny, which corresponds to the old Mandement de Peney, was owned by the bishop, and since 1536 by the Republic of Geneva, and it was the prime example of old Genevan countryside.
The coat of arms and the flag are derived from the seal of the prior of Satigny from 1340: this seal represents a hand holding a double-bladed key with a sun and a golden crescent. Satigny removed the hand, and gave to the shield the cantonal and federal colours: red shield and white key for the colours of the Swiss confederation, and the red shield and golden sun and crescent for the colours of the Republic and Canton of Geneva.
History
In its origins, Satigny fell under the jurisdiction of Saint-Pierre-aux-Liens, a dependency of the abbot of Ainay in Lyon, which grew rapidly with lands granted to it mainly by the lords of Gex.When the territory of the municipality formed part of the Peney castellany, the town had a priory devoted to St Peter. A chart from 912, the oldest surviving authentic document of Geneva's history, notifies the donation by Eldegarde, probably a countess, of part of the assets inherited from her husband to the monastery of St Peter. However, she reserved for herself the usufruct of the lands located in Satigny, Choully, Peissy, Challex, Crest, Logras, and Feigères, and she asked the bishop of Geneva to ensure that her donation was well executed.
In 1134 the bishop denounced the violation of the canonical rules and obtained by arbitrage from the archbishop of Vienna the priory of Satigny. The main town would develop around the convent and, in 1305, its inhabitants and those of the neighbouring hamlets created a community. The castle of Peney-Dessus, flanked by a fortified village, was the headquarters of the Peney castellany, also called land of Mortier.
In 1282, a monk of Satigny, in love with Léonette de Joinville, slipped disguised as a woman into the apartment of the wife of the lord of Gex. When she discovered him, she made him undress and be beaten by her people. Simon de Joinville turned this into a pretext to claim the rights of the Peney castellany, its castle, Saint-Gervais, and the bridge over the Rhône river. The bishop responded by reminding to Simon that he had forgot to pay his tribute and he requested a compensation. In the face of the growing power of the bishop, the lord of Gex renounced to his claims and he submitted to the demands of the bishop.
Built, or-rebuilt around 1230 by the bishop Aymon of Grandson, the castle of Peney was besieged and conquered in 1287 by Amadeus V, Count of Savoy. Recovered in 1305 by the bishop, the castle fell again between 1349 and 1355 to the hands of the count of Geneva. In the 14th century, the loosening of the morals at the priory led the bishop to intervene and to begin to directly administer the convent by his chapter. Its revenues contributed to the upkeep of the cathedral to the detriment of the monastery. The monks became economical by necessity and, in 1381, a papal bull from Clement VII merged the priory of Satigny with the Geneva chapter.
In 1512, in the face of the extreme poverty of the monks, the Pope Julius II transformed the priory into a parish. In 1534, Geneva was shaken by the fights of the Reformation. The partisans of Catholicism fled the city and took refuge in the castle of Peney, from which they launched attacks against the Republic, pillaging and robbing the region. They are called the “Peneysans”. The Bernese troops took over the castle on 5 February 1536 and finally demolished it.
The town of Bourdigny, which belonged to the lords of Gex, joined the municipality in 1749 with the treaty of Paris. After the reformation, the region of the Mandement, comprising Peissy, Satigny, Choully, Peney, Bourdigny, and Dardagny, would remain territories administered by the secular authorities of the Republic of Geneva, cut-off from the city by French territory. The lands would finally geographically linked to Geneva with the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and with the Treaty of Turin in 1816, which granted several towns to the new canton from France and Savoy in order to create geographical continuity, amongst which the towns Aire-la-Ville, Meyrin, Vernier, and Bernex, that now border Satigny. Peney and its castle used to belong to the municipality of Russin and they only joined Satigny in 1817.
Geography
According to the Swiss federal statistics office, Satigny measures 18,92 km2, which makes it the largest municipality of the canton of Geneva by geographical size.Due to its considerable geographical size, the municipality includes many subdivisions: the neighbourhoods of Satigny-Dessous, Satigny-Dessus, as well as the hamlets of Bourdigny, Peney, Choully, Montfleury, and Peissy. It also includes the large industrial areas of ZIMEYSA and Bois-de-Bay. It forms part of the Mandement, and it borders the Swiss municipalities of Meyrin and Vernier to the East; Bernex, and Aire-la-Ville, to its south, separated from Satigny by the Rhône river; Russin, and Dardagny to the west. France is located to the north-west of the municipality, separated from Satigny by the Allondon river and the stream of the Nant de l'Ecra.
The municipality is bordered by the CERN to its north-east, which together with the ZIMEYSA industrial area at the east of the municipality marks the transition from countryside to the urban landscape formed by Meyrin and Vernier which surround the city of Geneva.
The Jura mountains define the outline of the landscape in the background. The Salève, the Lake Geneva, as well as the French Alps are also visible in the distance to the east and south-east of the town.
Satigny, like other towns in the periphery of Geneva, plays as role as a "green belt" and incarnates the bucolic image of vineyard-dominated countryside-landscape for the local urban inhabitants, mixing large wooded areas, hilly landscapes, and vineyards. Indeed, with 460 hectares of vineyards, Satigny concentrates one-third of the 1,410 hectares of vineyards in the canton of Geneva, which makes it not only Geneva's largest wine-making town but also Switzerland's.
Although some pedestrian crossings still exist on the route of Bourdigny and Moulin Fabry, after the closure of the small custom offices in 1993, the Franco-Swiss border is not crossed by any road in Satigny. This, coupled with the border created by the Allondon, and the 4-lane D-884 road on the French side, has separated the town from the French territory and there are very few relations between both sides.
Demographics
Satigny has a population of.. Most of the population speaks French, with German being second most common and English being third. There are 62 people who speak Italian and 2 people who speak Romansh.The historical population is given in the following chart:
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bar:1481 from:start till:116
bar:1481 at:126 fontsize:S text: "29 Hearths" shift:
bar:1818 from:start till:900 text:"900"
bar:1850 from:start till:1044 text:"1,044"
bar:1860 from:start till:1095 text:"1,095"
bar:1870 from:start till:1172 text:"1,172"
bar:1880 from:start till:1227 text:"1,227"
bar:1888 from:start till:1206 text:"1,206"
bar:1900 from:start till:1343 text:"1,343"
bar:1910 from:start till:1268 text:"1,268"
bar:1920 from:start till:1310 text:"1,310"
bar:1930 from:start till:1335 text:"1,335"
bar:1941 from:start till:1383 text:"1,383"
bar:1950 from:start till:1373 text:"1,373"
bar:1960 from:start till:1594 text:"1,594"
bar:1970 from:start till:1877 text:"1,877"
bar:1980 from:start till:1708 text:"1,708"
bar:1990 from:start till:2320 text:"2,320"
bar:2000 from:start till:2785 text:"2,785"
bar:2010 from:start till:3630 text:"3,630"
bar:2020 from:start till:4303 text:"4,303"
The development of Satigny was very stable until the 1950s. During the 60s-80s, there was some light growth, driven mainly by the construction of houses in the neighbourhood of Pré-Gentil. But the major development of the town occurred from the 90s onwards. Of all the buildings, 25% were built before 1919, 30% from 1919 to 1980, and the remaining 47% after 1980.
The size of the housing is on the average for the rural towns, but a lot larger than in neighbouring urban Meyrin and Vernier. On average there are 2.72 inhabitants per residence. In 2016, Satigny had 663 buildings, of which 49.6% were separate houses. However, this percentage is expected to keep falling as new developments are built, such as Les Celliers, Champ-Magnin, Pré-Gentil, or the Pôle Satigny-Gare.
From the, 1,075 or 38.6% were Roman Catholic, while 735 or 26.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 12 members of an Orthodox church, there were 7 individuals who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 72 individuals who belonged to another Christian church. There were 4 individuals who were Jewish, and 16 who were Islamic. There were 17 individuals who were Buddhist, 2 individuals who were Hindu and 4 individuals who belonged to another church. 617 belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 224 individuals did not answer the question.