Willisau
Willisau is a municipality in the district of Willisau in the Lucerne canton of Switzerland. It was formed on 1 January 2006 from the municipalities of Willisau Land and Willisau Stadt. On 1 January 2021 the former municipality of Gettnau merged into Willisau.
History
Foundation
There were Roman settlements near Willisau by the 2nd or 3rd century AD. In 893 the Alamannic settlement of Cozeriswilare / Gesserswil was mentioned near modern Willisau. By the 11th century a parish church existed in the area and in 1101 the lords of Honstetten were mentioned as holding the patronage rights over the church at Willineshouwo. In 1245 the Freiherr von Hasenburg held the church and the surrounding lands as a fief for the Habsburgs.In 1302-3 the three Hasenburg brothers, Markward, Heimo and Walter, founded the fortified town of Willisau. The new town was granted the right have a wall and fortifications by the Habsburgs and later the right to hold markets. At the time of its founding it probably had about 150 citizens. Through marriage, in 1367, the Counts of Aarburg inherited the town. However, it still remained a fief under the Austrian Habsburgs. In 1375 Duke Leopold of Austria ordered the poorly fortified city to be burned to prevent its capture by the Guglers, English and French mercenaries who were raiding throughout the region. Just over ten years later, during the Sempach War of 1386, Leopold ordered the town burned again to prevent it falling into Swiss hands.
The small villages surrounding Willisau were founded during the Middle Ages and were ruled by a number of different nobles over the centuries.
Survival
In 1407 the descendants of the Hasenburg family sold the town to Lucerne. Because the town sat on an important trade route from Lucerne to Bern, it grew into an important regional trade center and center of a district or vogtei. However, initially the vogt remained in Lucerne and ruled through local amtmann or bailiff. In 1471 a fire destroyed much of the town. Over the following centuries, the town gradually gained additional rights and autonomy.After the Swiss peasant war of 1653 the vogt moved from Lucerne to Willisau to better control the countryside, while giving the town increased autonomy. In 1690-95 a large Bailiff's Castle was built by Landvogt Franz Bernhard Feer as a residence and administrative center of the vogt. By the 16th century the town had become the home of many small craftsmen and business owners. While the town remained somewhat prosperous, there were very few wealthy citizens. In 1704 the town was destroyed for a fourth time by a fire. Very few of the residents were wealthy enough to rebuild their homes and reconstruction was very slow.
Division and reunification
Before 2006, the municipality was divided into Willisau Stadt and Willisau Land.During the 17th and 18th centuries the town was relatively well off, while Willisau Land was generally poorer. In 1763 a special tax was decreed on the town to help support the poor of the surrounding countryside. Those in Willisau Land were placed under the laws and jurisdiction of the town, but were no longer responsible to care for the poor. In 1798, following the creation of the Helvetic Republic, the special rights of the town's citizens were abolished and the two tax districts became separate municipalities. Following the collapse of the Republic and the 1803 Act of Mediation, the two municipalities became totally autonomous. Despite being two separate communities, Willisau Stadt remained the population and economic center of the area. By the 1990s the two municipalities shared a number of organizations and responsibilities.
On 25 January 2004, the population of both municipalities voted for reunification. So, on 1 January 2006 the formerly separate municipalities of Willisau Stadt and Willisau Land merged into the municipality of Willisau.
Gettnau
Gettnau is first mentioned in the 9th century as Kepinhouva.Geography
Willisau has an area, of. Of this area, about 63.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 27.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 8.0% is settled and 0.8% is unproductive land. In the 2004/09 survey a total of or about 5.1% of the total area was covered with buildings, an increase of over the 1981 amount. Of the agricultural land, is used for orchards and vineyards and is fields and grasslands. Since 1981 the amount of agricultural land has decreased by. Over the same time period the amount of forested land has increased by. Rivers and lakes cover in the municipality.Demographics
Willisau has a population of. , 8.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has changed at a rate of 2.3%. Migration accounted for 0%, while births and deaths accounted for 1.3%. Most of the population speaks German as their first language, Albanian is the second most common and Serbo-Croatian is the third., the population was made up of 6,620 Swiss citizens and 586 non-citizen residents. , children and teenagers make up 25.4% of the population, while adults make up 59% and seniors make up 15.7%.
, the construction rate of new housing units was 1.8 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality,, was 0.49%.
Historic population
The historical population is given in the following chart:Colors=
id:lightgrey value:gray
id:darkgrey value:gray
ImageSize = width:1100 height:500
PlotArea = top:10 left:100 bottom:90 right:100
Legend = columns:4 left:220 top:70 columnwidth:160
AlignBars = justify
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:9000
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:1000 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:200 start:0
Colors=
id:WI value:red legend:Willisau
id:LA value:green legend:Wil._Land
id:ST value:blue legend:Wil._Stadt
id:GE value:yellow legend:Gettnau
PlotData=
color:yellowgreen width:30 mark: align:center
bar:1850 from: 0 till:3161 text:"3161" color:LA
bar:1860 from: 0 till:3078 text:"3078" color:LA
bar:1870 from: 0 till:3032 text:"3032" color:LA
bar:1880 from: 0 till:2978 text:"2978" color:LA
bar:1888 from: 0 till:2797 text:"2797" color:LA
bar:1900 from: 0 till:2537 text:"2537" color:LA
bar:1910 from: 0 till:2627 text:"2627" color:LA
bar:1920 from: 0 till:2897 text:"2897" color:LA
bar:1930 from: 0 till:3029 text:"3029" color:LA
bar:1941 from: 0 till:3098 text:"3098" color:LA
bar:1950 from: 0 till:3144 text:"3144" color:LA
bar:1960 from: 0 till:3266 text:"3266" color:LA
bar:1970 from: 0 till:3442 text:"3442" color:LA
bar:1980 from: 0 till:3594 text:"3594" color:LA
bar:1990 from: 0 till:3788 text:"3788" color:LA
bar:2000 from: 0 till:4105 text:"4105" color:LA
bar:1850 from: 3161 till:4392 text:"1231" color:ST
bar:1860 from: 3078 till:4486 text:"1408" color:ST
bar:1870 from: 3032 till:4539 text:"1507" color:ST
bar:1880 from: 2978 till:4615 text:"1637" color:ST
bar:1888 from: 2797 till:4418 text:"1621" color:ST
bar:1900 from: 2537 till:4131 text:"1594" color:ST
bar:1910 from: 2627 till:4263 text:"1636" color:ST
bar:1920 from: 2897 till:4615 text:"1718" color:ST
bar:1930 from: 3029 till:4930 text:"1901" color:ST
bar:1941 from: 3098 till:5179 text:"2081" color:ST
bar:1950 from: 3144 till:5273 text:"2129" color:ST
bar:1960 from: 3266 till:5774 text:"2508" color:ST
bar:1970 from: 3442 till:6170 text:"2728" color:ST
bar:1980 from: 3594 till:6233 text:"2639" color:ST
bar:1990 from: 3788 till:6654 text:"2866" color:ST
bar:2000 from: 4105 till:7101 text:"2996" color:ST
bar:2010 from: 0 till:7209 text:"7209" color:WI
bar:1850 from: 4392 till:5063 text:"671" color:GE
bar:1860 from: 4486 till:5160 text:"674" color:GE
bar:1870 from: 4539 till:5159 text:"620" color:GE
bar:1880 from: 4615 till:5177 text:"562" color:GE
bar:1888 from: 4418 till:4973 text:"555" color:GE
bar:1900 from: 4131 till:4735 text:"604" color:GE
bar:1910 from: 4263 till:4915 text:"652" color:GE
bar:1920 from: 4615 till:5274 text:"659" color:GE
bar:1930 from: 4930 till:5590 text:"660" color:GE
bar:1941 from: 5179 till:5887 text:"708" color:GE
bar:1950 from: 5273 till:6045 text:"772" color:GE
bar:1960 from: 5774 till:6491 text:"717" color:GE
bar:1970 from: 6170 till:6880 text:"710" color:GE
bar:1980 from: 6233 till:7056 text:"823" color:GE
bar:1990 from: 6654 till:7627 text:"973" color:GE
bar:2000 from: 7101 till:8091 text:"990" color:GE
bar:2010 from: 7209 till:8225 text:"1016" color:GE