Brig, Switzerland
Encyclopedia
Brig, officially Brig-Glis is a municipality in the district of Brig in the canton of Valais
in Switzerland
.
The current municipality was formed in 1972 through the merger of Brig (city), Brigerbad and Glis.
, former Jesuits' college and Ursuline convent) all date from the 17th century, and are due to the generosity of a single member of the local Stockalper family, the baron
Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper.
The prosperity of Brig is bound up with the Simplon Pass, so that it gradually supplanted the more ancient village of Naters
opposite, becoming a separate parish (the church is at Glis, a few minutes from the town) in 1517. Its medieval name was Briga dives. The opening of the carriage road across the Simplon (1807) and of the tunnel beneath the pass (1906), as well as the fact that above Brig is the steeper and less fertile portion of the Upper Valais (then much frequented by tourists), greatly increased the importance and size of the town.
objects, a bracelet and a dagger. From the Latène era
, two skeletons, two walser
bracelets and two brooches have been found. Roman
place-names (Kastel, Saltina and Geschina) appear in the area along the old Roman highway, but outside the immediate area Germanic names dominate. Archeological expeditions since 1988 in Gamsen have discovered significant traces of human settlement from the Iron Age
, Migration Period
and Early Middle Ages
.
The de Briga family is first mentioned in 1215. The family was probably a branch of the Mangoldi line which was first mentioned in 1181 and is probably identical de Curia (im Hof) family which appeared between 1308-35. The family seat was the Höllenburg, which was a tower above Brig. By the 17th Century the tower had been demolished. It is likely that the original town of Brig grew up around a 12th Century tower and curtain wall that was built in the valley. The original tower was replaced with a new tower in the 13th Century, which was demolished in 1970.
It is likely that the city was founded by the Bishop of Sion. In the 14th Century, Brig was first mentioned as a town. It grew in importance and in 1518 became the capital of the Zenden (a term for a district in Valais) of Brig. Together with the capital, it became the seat of the district court. The town hall is first mentioned in 1618. Legal records from 1576-1631 contain provisions relating to community organization, trade and market regulations, criminal and luxury taxes. The municipality was headed by two mayors and a council of six. The city wall also served as a flood wall to help protect the town from the Saltina, which often flooded, most recently in 1920 and 1993. The Rhone
river caused floods in 1469, 1506, 1640, 1752, 1775, 1868 and 1920. In 1755 and again in 1855 an earthquake damaged the city. The plague decimated the population in 1465, 1475, 1485 and 1575. In 1799 French troops pillaged the city, burned the archives and inflicted great damage.
During the early modern era
Brig became increasingly wealthy from trade over the Alpine passes. Starting in the middle of the 13th Century, it was a storage, transshipment and customs station for transportation over the Simplon Pass. The wealth permitted several large and ornate buildings to be built in town. The Renaissance
tower of the Provincial Governor Kaspar Metz Elten was built in 1526. Then, in 1658-78, Kaspar Jodok Stockalper built a castle with three towers, and arcaded courtyard and a park. This castle, the Stockalperschloss, dominates the skyline. The early modern city also featured the old Stockalper house (ca. 1533), the Salzhof (16th century, demolished 1967) which served as a transshipment and storage point, the patrician houses of Wegener (17th century), Mannhaft (1709) and Fernanda de Stockalper (1727). Outside the city, in 1677, Kaspar Jodok Stockalper built the Matteni manor house for Georg Christoph Mannhaft.
Until the 16th Century, the rights to taxes and customs on the Simplon Pass trade were held by the Bishop of Sion, who granted these rights as a fief to his supporters. The weekly market was revived again in 1572. Starting in the 15th Century, tailors, shoemakers and porters/carriers joined together in fraternities and guilds.
Brig originally belonged to the large parish
of Naters until 1642 when it became part of the parish of Glis. Brig became its own parish in 1957 and built a parish church
in 1967-70. In 1624-27, the Jesuits established a branch in the town. Between 1662-1773 and again in 1814-47, they ran a college in the town. The college was built in 1663-73 followed by the college church in 1673-87. Between 1773-1814 the college was administrated by the Piarists
. Since 1848 it was operated by the Canton of Valais, and until 1990 the rector
was a lay
priest. The first Capuchin
monastery was built in 1650-60, but the existing monastery is from 1947-48. An Ursuline
convent was founded in 1661 with a girls' school and the Ursuline Church dates from 1732. Since 1937 it has been the mission house (and sometimes a seminary) the Mariannhill Missionaries. The Anthony hospital was established in 1304. The gothic
hospital church was built in the 14th century and the first hospital religious order was founded in 1399. It was later passed to the community, and served the town until 1908. The citizenry built the Sebastian Chapel in 1636-37 and restored it in 1972-73. In 1951, Karl Schmid built the Wehrmann chapel.
The construction of the new road over the Simplon Pass in 1801-05, the expansion of the old road between 1949–60 and the construction of a national highway starting in 1960, have allowed increasing traffic through Brig. In 1890-1905 stagecoaches transported 152,816 persons to Domodossola
over the pass. In 1906 the first car drove over the Simplon. Since 1919, postal buses have run over the pass into Brig. This service expanded from seasonal to year round in 1970. The first rail line into Brig was finished in 1874 and connected the town to the west by the Rhone Valley. The Lötschbergtunnel, which opened in 1913, connected Brig to Bern. When the Simplon Tunnel
was built in 1906 and the second tunnel was added in 1921, it provided a year round, reliable rail link with Italy. In 1926, the Furka-Oberalp rail line connected Brig with Disentis in Graubünden
. The railway station was built in 1877-78, and was expanded in 1910 with a new building, which also serves as a freight station and border station. The 1910 station was expanded in 1957, 1961 and 1993. In 1859 a telegraph office was built in town, followed by a local telephone network in 1898.
As it became easier to travel to Brig, the tourism industry grew. The number of hotel beds in town rose from 120 in 1800, to 425 in 1912 and to 1,000 in 1993. By 2002 the number of beds had dropped to about 820. In 1858 a large sawmill was built in town. This was followed by other smaller industrial companies, including woodworking, pasta production, telephone apparatus, gloves and knitwear. The Brig-Naters power plant was built in 1900 to supply power to the towns and their growing industry. However, in the middle to late 20th Century, most of the industrial plants left Brig. In 1990, 81% of the work force worked in the services or tertiary sector of the economy. Only 18% worked in industry and 1% worked in agriculture. In 2001 there were 7,129 employees in Brig-Glis, working for 803 companies.
of Sion
. In the early 14th Century an earthen wall was built across the Rhône Valley at Gamsen. This wall, portions of which are still visible, was probably built to protect against invasions from Savoy
. In 1596, an iron mine was opened near the village. This mine was acquired in 1636, by Kaspar Jodok Stockalper.
Until 1642, Glis belonged to the parish of Naters, but had been relatively independent in religious matters since the 12th-13th Century. The Church of Our Lady on the Glisacker has been a pilgrimage center of the Upper Valais since the 14th Century. Glis was raised to an independent parish in 1642. At that time, the parish included Brig, Brigerbad, Ried-Brig, Termen, Gamsen and Eggerberg. Excavations in and around the church in 1984 discovered an early christian aisleless church
from around 500. The excavations also discovered a baptistery and side rooms and parts of four other churches. The present church, which combines elements of both the Renaissance and the lateGothic period, owes its appearance to Prismell master builders Peter and Christian Bodmer. In the mid-17th Century they completed the plans drawn up in 1519 by Ulrich Ruffiner.
After the Second World War, Glis developed from a farming village into a residential area for Brig. In the merger with Brig, Glis brought a large amount of land and a large industrial company, the explosives factory Société suisse des explosifs which was founded in Gamsen in 1894.
von Baden, which may have been built in the 13th Century, and the so-called bishops barn, which may date from the 15th century. Brigerbad was always part of the parish of Glis, though they did built a chapel in 1721. The village began to develop local government and law in the 16th and 17th Century and the first statutes were written in 1671.
The floods of the Rhone, maintenance of Gamsner bridge (first mentioned in 1395) and the reclamation of the Eyen were commonplace activities from the 13th Century until the Rhone Correction in 1873-82.
Brigerbad was known for its hot springs. The village's name literally means "Brig's baths". They were discovered in 1471 by Anton Walker and flourished in the 16th Century under Peter Owlig. The thermal hot spring baths began to decay in the 17th Century, but were rebuilt in 1934-35 and again in 1956-60.
, on the right bank of the Saltine stream, and a little above its junction with the Rhone
. Brig is located close to the Swiss-Italian borders.
Brig-Glis has an area, , of 38 square kilometre. Of this area, 13.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 46.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 10.4% is settled (buildings or roads) and 29.7% is unproductive land.
of the municipal coat of arms
is Or, an Eagle with dragon's tail displayed Sable, crowned, beaked, langued, membered and tailed Gules bearing an Escutcheon Gules three Mullets Or in pale.
Most of the population speaks German
(10,465 or 90.3%) as their first language, Italian
is the second most common (221 or 1.9%) and French
is the third (197 or 1.7%). There are 8 people who speak Romansh. The language used in every day transactions is a unique German dialect
, only used in this particular canton
.
, the gender distribution of the population was 47.9% male and 52.1% female. The population was made up of 5,049 Swiss men (41.2% of the population) and 826 (6.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 5,477 Swiss women (44.7%) and 902 (7.4%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 4,456 or about 38.4% were born in Brig-Glis and lived there in 2000. There were 4,077 or 35.2% who were born in the same canton, while 1,154 or 10.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,479 or 12.8% were born outside of Switzerland. The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 24.5% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 14.7%.
, there were 5,111 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 5,331 married individuals, 678 widows or widowers and 470 individuals who are divorced.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.6 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.63 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 51.3% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
or a rent-to-own agreement).
, there were 4,494 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 1,361 households that consist of only one person and 288 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 4,634 households that answered this question, 29.4% were households made up of just one person and there were 63 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 1,233 married couples without children, 1,495 married couples with children There were 263 single parents with a child or children. There were 79 households that were made up of unrelated people and 140 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 700 single family homes (or 44.6% of the total) out of a total of 1,571 inhabited buildings. There were 590 multi-family buildings (37.6%), along with 143 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (9.1%) and 138 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (8.8%).
, a total of 4,296 apartments (87.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 453 apartments (9.2%) were seasonally occupied and 154 apartments (3.1%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 11.6 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.59%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance
. The entire old town of Brig is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
.
the most popular party was the CVP
which received 55.37% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP
(19.18%), the SP
(14.86%) and the FDP
(7.63%). In the federal election, a total of 4,878 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
was 56.3%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat
election a total of 4,340 votes were cast, of which 565 or about 13.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 50.1%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election
election a total of 4,825 votes were cast, of which 350 or about 7.3% were invalid. The voter participation was 56.2%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.
the total number of full-time equivalent
jobs was 6,752. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 33, of which 23 were in agriculture, 8 were in forestry or lumber production and 2 were in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 1,242 of which 361 or (29.1%) were in manufacturing, 2 or (0.2%) were in mining and 798 (64.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 5,477. In the tertiary sector; 970 or 17.7% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 1,137 or 20.8% were in the movement and storage of goods, 436 or 8.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 98 or 1.8% were in the information industry, 234 or 4.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 522 or 9.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 458 or 8.4% were in education and 1,042 or 19.0% were in health care.
, there were 4,531 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,880 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 2.4 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 8.7% of the workforce coming into Brig-Glis are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 17.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 40.5% used a private car.
railway lines, namely the Simplon railway, the Milan–Domodossola railway, and the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon railway, operated by either SBB-CFF-FFS
or BLS AG
, all meet at Brig railway station
. So too do two metre gauge
lines, both of them operated by Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn
, and the metre gauge trains calling at Brig include the Glacier Express
.
. Of the rest of the population, there were 173 members of an Orthodox church
(or about 1.49% of the population), and there were 224 individuals (or about 1.93% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 322 (or about 2.78% of the population) who were Islam
ic. There were 20 individuals who were Buddhist
, 22 individuals who were Hindu
and 5 individuals who belonged to another church. 281 (or about 2.42% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
or atheist
, and 406 individuals (or about 3.50% of the population) did not answer the question.
). Of the 1,344 who completed tertiary schooling, 61.8% were Swiss men, 21.4% were Swiss women, 10.2% were non-Swiss men and 6.6% were non-Swiss women.
During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 1,243 students in the Brig-Glis school system. The education system
in the Canton of Valais allows young children to attend one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten
. During that school year, there 9 kindergarten classes (KG1 or KG2) and 192 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school. In Brig-Glis there were a total of 41 classes and 802 students in the primary school.
The secondary school
program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling (orientation classes), followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. There were 441 lower secondary students who attended school in Brig-Glis. There were 1,451 upper secondary students in the municipality and 3 schools in the municipality The first school, the Spiritus Sanctus has 941 students and 43 classes. The second school, the HSK Brig (with KSS) has 102 students and 9 classes. The final school, the HMS-FMS-SfB (Trade school-vocational school-school for vocational preparation) has 408 students and 19 classes.
, there were 1,177 students in Brig-Glis who came from another municipality, while 306 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Brig-Glis is home to the Mediathek Wallis - Brig library. The library has 95,906 books or other media, and loaned out 195,233 items in the same year. It was open a total of 260 days with average of 53 hours per week during that year.
river. Due to the high altitude, the temperatures in winter often remain below zero, resulting in frost. During the summer season, heat can be intense.
Valais
The Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
The current municipality was formed in 1972 through the merger of Brig (city), Brigerbad and Glis.
History
The name Brig is derived from Briva, or "bridge." Its older houses are very Italian in appearance, while its most prominent buildings (Stockalper PalaceStockalper Palace
The Stockalper Palace is a castle in Brig-Glis, Switzerland. It was built between 1658 and 1678 by Kaspar Stockalper, a silk merchant of Brig. The Stockalper Palace was the largest private construction in Switzerland at the time...
, former Jesuits' college and Ursuline convent) all date from the 17th century, and are due to the generosity of a single member of the local Stockalper family, the baron
Baron
Baron is a title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin baro meaning " man, warrior"; it merged with cognate Old English beorn meaning "nobleman"...
Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper.
The prosperity of Brig is bound up with the Simplon Pass, so that it gradually supplanted the more ancient village of Naters
Naters
Naters is a municipality in the district of Brig in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.-Geography:Naters has an area, , of . Of this area, 16.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 9.0% is forested...
opposite, becoming a separate parish (the church is at Glis, a few minutes from the town) in 1517. Its medieval name was Briga dives. The opening of the carriage road across the Simplon (1807) and of the tunnel beneath the pass (1906), as well as the fact that above Brig is the steeper and less fertile portion of the Upper Valais (then much frequented by tourists), greatly increased the importance and size of the town.
Brig
Brig is first mentioned in 1215 as Briga. The first evidence of human habitation near Brig comes from a few Bronze AgeBronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
objects, a bracelet and a dagger. From the Latène era
La Tène culture
The La Tène culture was a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where a rich cache of artifacts was discovered by Hansli Kopp in 1857....
, two skeletons, two walser
Walser
The Walser are German-speaking people who live in the Alps of Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein and Austria. The Walser people are named after the Wallis , the uppermost Rhône River valley...
bracelets and two brooches have been found. Roman
Switzerland in the Roman era
The history of Switzerland in the Roman era encompasses the roughly six centuries during which the territory of modern Switzerland was a part of the Roman Republic and Empire...
place-names (Kastel, Saltina and Geschina) appear in the area along the old Roman highway, but outside the immediate area Germanic names dominate. Archeological expeditions since 1988 in Gamsen have discovered significant traces of human settlement from the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
, Migration Period
Migration Period
The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
and Early Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...
.
The de Briga family is first mentioned in 1215. The family was probably a branch of the Mangoldi line which was first mentioned in 1181 and is probably identical de Curia (im Hof) family which appeared between 1308-35. The family seat was the Höllenburg, which was a tower above Brig. By the 17th Century the tower had been demolished. It is likely that the original town of Brig grew up around a 12th Century tower and curtain wall that was built in the valley. The original tower was replaced with a new tower in the 13th Century, which was demolished in 1970.
It is likely that the city was founded by the Bishop of Sion. In the 14th Century, Brig was first mentioned as a town. It grew in importance and in 1518 became the capital of the Zenden (a term for a district in Valais) of Brig. Together with the capital, it became the seat of the district court. The town hall is first mentioned in 1618. Legal records from 1576-1631 contain provisions relating to community organization, trade and market regulations, criminal and luxury taxes. The municipality was headed by two mayors and a council of six. The city wall also served as a flood wall to help protect the town from the Saltina, which often flooded, most recently in 1920 and 1993. The Rhone
Rhône
Rhone can refer to:* Rhone, one of the major rivers of Europe, running through Switzerland and France* Rhône Glacier, the source of the Rhone River and one of the primary contributors to Lake Geneva in the far eastern end of the canton of Valais in Switzerland...
river caused floods in 1469, 1506, 1640, 1752, 1775, 1868 and 1920. In 1755 and again in 1855 an earthquake damaged the city. The plague decimated the population in 1465, 1475, 1485 and 1575. In 1799 French troops pillaged the city, burned the archives and inflicted great damage.
During the early modern era
Early Modern Switzerland
The early modern history of the Old Swiss Confederacy , lasting from formal independence in 1648 to the French invasion of 1798 came to be referred as Ancien Régime retrospectively, in post-Napoleonic Switzerland.The early modern period was characterized by an increasingly...
Brig became increasingly wealthy from trade over the Alpine passes. Starting in the middle of the 13th Century, it was a storage, transshipment and customs station for transportation over the Simplon Pass. The wealth permitted several large and ornate buildings to be built in town. The Renaissance
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...
tower of the Provincial Governor Kaspar Metz Elten was built in 1526. Then, in 1658-78, Kaspar Jodok Stockalper built a castle with three towers, and arcaded courtyard and a park. This castle, the Stockalperschloss, dominates the skyline. The early modern city also featured the old Stockalper house (ca. 1533), the Salzhof (16th century, demolished 1967) which served as a transshipment and storage point, the patrician houses of Wegener (17th century), Mannhaft (1709) and Fernanda de Stockalper (1727). Outside the city, in 1677, Kaspar Jodok Stockalper built the Matteni manor house for Georg Christoph Mannhaft.
Until the 16th Century, the rights to taxes and customs on the Simplon Pass trade were held by the Bishop of Sion, who granted these rights as a fief to his supporters. The weekly market was revived again in 1572. Starting in the 15th Century, tailors, shoemakers and porters/carriers joined together in fraternities and guilds.
Brig originally belonged to the large parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
of Naters until 1642 when it became part of the parish of Glis. Brig became its own parish in 1957 and built a parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
in 1967-70. In 1624-27, the Jesuits established a branch in the town. Between 1662-1773 and again in 1814-47, they ran a college in the town. The college was built in 1663-73 followed by the college church in 1673-87. Between 1773-1814 the college was administrated by the Piarists
Piarists
The Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools or, in short, Piarists , is the name of the oldest Catholic educational order also known as the Scolopi, Escolapios or Poor Clerics of the Mother of God...
. Since 1848 it was operated by the Canton of Valais, and until 1990 the rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
was a lay
Catholic Laity
There are estimated to be over 1 billion Roman Catholics in the World. The majority of these are Lay Catholics otherwise known as the Laity. The Catholic Church is overseen by the Pope, 200 Cardinals and just over 31,000 Bishops...
priest. The first Capuchin
Order of Friars Minor Capuchin
The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin is an Order of friars in the Catholic Church, among the chief offshoots of the Franciscans. The worldwide head of the Order, called the Minister General, is currently Father Mauro Jöhri.-Origins :...
monastery was built in 1650-60, but the existing monastery is from 1947-48. An Ursuline
Ursulines
The Ursulines are a Roman Catholic religious order for women founded at Brescia, Italy, by Saint Angela de Merici in November 1535, primarily for the education of girls and the care of the sick and needy. Their patron saint is Saint Ursula.-History:St Angela de Merici spent 17 years leading a...
convent was founded in 1661 with a girls' school and the Ursuline Church dates from 1732. Since 1937 it has been the mission house (and sometimes a seminary) the Mariannhill Missionaries. The Anthony hospital was established in 1304. The gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
hospital church was built in the 14th century and the first hospital religious order was founded in 1399. It was later passed to the community, and served the town until 1908. The citizenry built the Sebastian Chapel in 1636-37 and restored it in 1972-73. In 1951, Karl Schmid built the Wehrmann chapel.
The construction of the new road over the Simplon Pass in 1801-05, the expansion of the old road between 1949–60 and the construction of a national highway starting in 1960, have allowed increasing traffic through Brig. In 1890-1905 stagecoaches transported 152,816 persons to Domodossola
Domodossola
Domodossola is a city and comune in the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, in the region of Piedmont, northern Italy...
over the pass. In 1906 the first car drove over the Simplon. Since 1919, postal buses have run over the pass into Brig. This service expanded from seasonal to year round in 1970. The first rail line into Brig was finished in 1874 and connected the town to the west by the Rhone Valley. The Lötschbergtunnel, which opened in 1913, connected Brig to Bern. When the Simplon Tunnel
Simplon Tunnel
The Simplon Tunnel is an Alpine railway tunnel that connects the Swiss town of Brig with Domodossola in Italy, though its relatively straight trajectory does not run under Simplon Pass itself. It actually consists of two single-track tunnels built nearly 20 years apart...
was built in 1906 and the second tunnel was added in 1921, it provided a year round, reliable rail link with Italy. In 1926, the Furka-Oberalp rail line connected Brig with Disentis in Graubünden
Graubünden
Graubünden or Grisons is the largest and easternmost canton of Switzerland. The canton shares borders with the cantons of Ticino, Uri, Glarus and St. Gallen and international borders with Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein...
. The railway station was built in 1877-78, and was expanded in 1910 with a new building, which also serves as a freight station and border station. The 1910 station was expanded in 1957, 1961 and 1993. In 1859 a telegraph office was built in town, followed by a local telephone network in 1898.
As it became easier to travel to Brig, the tourism industry grew. The number of hotel beds in town rose from 120 in 1800, to 425 in 1912 and to 1,000 in 1993. By 2002 the number of beds had dropped to about 820. In 1858 a large sawmill was built in town. This was followed by other smaller industrial companies, including woodworking, pasta production, telephone apparatus, gloves and knitwear. The Brig-Naters power plant was built in 1900 to supply power to the towns and their growing industry. However, in the middle to late 20th Century, most of the industrial plants left Brig. In 1990, 81% of the work force worked in the services or tertiary sector of the economy. Only 18% worked in industry and 1% worked in agriculture. In 2001 there were 7,129 employees in Brig-Glis, working for 803 companies.
Glis
The oldest traces of human settlements around Glis were discovered in 1992 and included significant traces of settlements from the Bronze and Iron Ages. During the Middle Ages, Glis, Holz and Gamsen formed a municipality in the Zenden. Starting around 1320, the settlement of Wickert (now part of Glis) was a farming estate that belonged to the collegiate churchCollegiate church
In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons; a non-monastic, or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by a dean or provost...
of Sion
Sion, Switzerland
Sion is the capital of the Swiss canton of Valais. it had a population of .Landmarks include the Basilique de Valère and Château de Tourbillon. Sion has an airfield for civilian and military use, which, because of its location in a valley, causes a reasonable amount of noise pollution. FC Sion...
. In the early 14th Century an earthen wall was built across the Rhône Valley at Gamsen. This wall, portions of which are still visible, was probably built to protect against invasions from Savoy
Savoy
Savoy is a region of France. It comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps situated between Lake Geneva in the north and Monaco and the Mediterranean coast in the south....
. In 1596, an iron mine was opened near the village. This mine was acquired in 1636, by Kaspar Jodok Stockalper.
Until 1642, Glis belonged to the parish of Naters, but had been relatively independent in religious matters since the 12th-13th Century. The Church of Our Lady on the Glisacker has been a pilgrimage center of the Upper Valais since the 14th Century. Glis was raised to an independent parish in 1642. At that time, the parish included Brig, Brigerbad, Ried-Brig, Termen, Gamsen and Eggerberg. Excavations in and around the church in 1984 discovered an early christian aisleless church
Aisleless church
An Aisleless church is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways either side of the nave separated from the nave by colonnades or arcades, a row of pillars or columns...
from around 500. The excavations also discovered a baptistery and side rooms and parts of four other churches. The present church, which combines elements of both the Renaissance and the lateGothic period, owes its appearance to Prismell master builders Peter and Christian Bodmer. In the mid-17th Century they completed the plans drawn up in 1519 by Ulrich Ruffiner.
After the Second World War, Glis developed from a farming village into a residential area for Brig. In the merger with Brig, Glis brought a large amount of land and a large industrial company, the explosives factory Société suisse des explosifs which was founded in Gamsen in 1894.
Brigerbad
Very little is known about the early history of this small village located between the Rhone and the far north side of the valley. There are two buildings in the village that are from the Middle Ages; the tower of JunkerJunker
A Junker was a member of the landed nobility of Prussia and eastern Germany. These families were mostly part of the German Uradel and carried on the colonization and Christianization of the northeastern European territories during the medieval Ostsiedlung. The abbreviation of Junker is Jkr...
von Baden, which may have been built in the 13th Century, and the so-called bishops barn, which may date from the 15th century. Brigerbad was always part of the parish of Glis, though they did built a chapel in 1721. The village began to develop local government and law in the 16th and 17th Century and the first statutes were written in 1671.
The floods of the Rhone, maintenance of Gamsner bridge (first mentioned in 1395) and the reclamation of the Eyen were commonplace activities from the 13th Century until the Rhone Correction in 1873-82.
Brigerbad was known for its hot springs. The village's name literally means "Brig's baths". They were discovered in 1471 by Anton Walker and flourished in the 16th Century under Peter Owlig. The thermal hot spring baths began to decay in the 17th Century, but were rebuilt in 1934-35 and again in 1956-60.
Geography
It is a picturesque small town in Upper Valais, situated at the foot of the northern slope of the Simplon PassSimplon Pass
Simplon Pass is a high mountain pass between the Pennine Alps and the Lepontine Alps in Switzerland. It connects Brig in the canton of Valais with Domodossola in Piedmont . The pass itself and the villages on each side of it, such as Gondo, are in Switzerland...
, on the right bank of the Saltine stream, and a little above its junction with the Rhone
Rhône
Rhone can refer to:* Rhone, one of the major rivers of Europe, running through Switzerland and France* Rhône Glacier, the source of the Rhone River and one of the primary contributors to Lake Geneva in the far eastern end of the canton of Valais in Switzerland...
. Brig is located close to the Swiss-Italian borders.
Brig-Glis has an area, , of 38 square kilometre. Of this area, 13.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 46.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 10.4% is settled (buildings or roads) and 29.7% is unproductive land.
Coat of arms
The blazonBlazon
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 the appropriate image...
of the municipal coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
is Or, an Eagle with dragon's tail displayed Sable, crowned, beaked, langued, membered and tailed Gules bearing an Escutcheon Gules three Mullets Or in pale.
Demographics
Brig-Glis has a population of . , 14.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 4.5%. It has changed at a rate of 7.8% due to migration and at a rate of -0.7% due to births and deaths.Most of the population speaks German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
(10,465 or 90.3%) as their first language, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
is the second most common (221 or 1.9%) and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
is the third (197 or 1.7%). There are 8 people who speak Romansh. The language used in every day transactions is a unique German dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
, only used in this particular canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...
.
, the gender distribution of the population was 47.9% male and 52.1% female. The population was made up of 5,049 Swiss men (41.2% of the population) and 826 (6.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 5,477 Swiss women (44.7%) and 902 (7.4%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 4,456 or about 38.4% were born in Brig-Glis and lived there in 2000. There were 4,077 or 35.2% who were born in the same canton, while 1,154 or 10.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,479 or 12.8% were born outside of Switzerland. The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 24.5% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 14.7%.
, there were 5,111 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 5,331 married individuals, 678 widows or widowers and 470 individuals who are divorced.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.6 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.63 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 51.3% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...
or a rent-to-own agreement).
, there were 4,494 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 1,361 households that consist of only one person and 288 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 4,634 households that answered this question, 29.4% were households made up of just one person and there were 63 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 1,233 married couples without children, 1,495 married couples with children There were 263 single parents with a child or children. There were 79 households that were made up of unrelated people and 140 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 700 single family homes (or 44.6% of the total) out of a total of 1,571 inhabited buildings. There were 590 multi-family buildings (37.6%), along with 143 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (9.1%) and 138 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (8.8%).
, a total of 4,296 apartments (87.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 453 apartments (9.2%) were seasonally occupied and 154 apartments (3.1%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 11.6 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.59%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Heritage sites of national significance
The Old and New Stockalperpalast, the Gamsenmauer and the Church of Mariä Himmelfahrt with ossuaryOssuary
An ossuary is a chest, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary...
are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance
Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance
The Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance is a register of some 8,300 items of cultural property in Switzerland...
. The entire old town of Brig is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.-Sites of national importance:-Types:...
.
Politics
In the 2007 federal electionSwiss federal election, 2007
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007...
the most popular party was the CVP
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...
which received 55.37% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...
(19.18%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
(14.86%) and the FDP
FDP.The Liberals
FDP.The Liberals is a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It is the joint-largest party in the Federal Council, third-largest party in the National Council, and second-largest in the Council of States....
(7.63%). In the federal election, a total of 4,878 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...
was 56.3%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat
Conseil d'Etat (Switzerland)
In Switzerland, Conseil d'Etat is the name of the council constituting the cantonal government of French-speaking cantons. It is not to be confused with the Conseil des États which is a chamber of the Swiss parliament....
election a total of 4,340 votes were cast, of which 565 or about 13.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 50.1%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election
Swiss Council of States election, 2007
Elections were held to the Council of States of Switzerland in October and November 2007 as part of the 2007 federal election. All 46 members of the Council of States were elected from all cantons of Switzerland. The first round was held on 21 October...
election a total of 4,825 votes were cast, of which 350 or about 7.3% were invalid. The voter participation was 56.2%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Brig-Glis had an unemployment rate of 2.1%. , there were 83 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 46 businesses involved in this sector. 1,297 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 137 businesses in this sector. 6,755 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 663 businesses in this sector. There were 5,400 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.7% of the workforce.the total number of full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent , is a unit to measure employed persons or students in a way that makes them comparable although they may work or study a different number of hours per week. FTE is often used to measure a worker's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organization...
jobs was 6,752. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 33, of which 23 were in agriculture, 8 were in forestry or lumber production and 2 were in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 1,242 of which 361 or (29.1%) were in manufacturing, 2 or (0.2%) were in mining and 798 (64.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 5,477. In the tertiary sector; 970 or 17.7% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 1,137 or 20.8% were in the movement and storage of goods, 436 or 8.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 98 or 1.8% were in the information industry, 234 or 4.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 522 or 9.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 458 or 8.4% were in education and 1,042 or 19.0% were in health care.
, there were 4,531 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,880 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 2.4 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 8.7% of the workforce coming into Brig-Glis are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 17.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 40.5% used a private car.
Transportation
Three standard gaugeStandard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
railway lines, namely the Simplon railway, the Milan–Domodossola railway, and the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon railway, operated by either SBB-CFF-FFS
SBB-CFF-FFS
Swiss Federal Railways and SFR are not in official use) is the national railway company of Switzerland headquartered in Bern. Formerly a government institution, it is since 1999 a special stock corporation with all shares held by the Swiss Confederation or the Swiss cantons...
or BLS AG
BLS AG
BLS AG is a Swiss railway company created by the 2006 merger of BLS Lötschbergbahn and Regionalverkehr Mittelland AG. It is 55.8 % owned by the Canton of Berne, and 21.7 % by the Swiss Confederation. It has two main business fields: passenger traffic and infrastructure.BLS has a subsidiary BLS...
, all meet at Brig railway station
Brig railway station
Brig railway station is an important railway junction in the municipality of Brig-Glis , in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland...
. So too do two metre gauge
Metre gauge
Metre gauge refers to narrow gauge railways and tramways with a track gauge of . In some African, American and Asian countries it is the main gauge. In Europe it has been used for local railways in France, Germany, and Belgium, most of which were closed down in mid 20th century. Only in Switzerland...
lines, both of them operated by Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn
Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn
The Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn is a narrow gauge railway in Switzerland. The track width is . It was created in 2003 through an amalgamation of Furka-Oberalp-Bahn and BVZ Zermatt-Bahn . The name comes from the Matterhorn and St...
, and the metre gauge trains calling at Brig include the Glacier Express
Glacier Express
The Glacier Express is an express train connecting railway stations of the two major mountain resorts of St. Moritz and Zermatt in the Swiss Alps. The train is operated jointly by the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn and Rhaetian Railway...
.
Religion
From the , 9,613 or 82.9% were Roman Catholic, while 634 or 5.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed ChurchSwiss Reformed Church
The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 173 members of an Orthodox church
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...
(or about 1.49% of the population), and there were 224 individuals (or about 1.93% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 322 (or about 2.78% of the population) who were Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic. There were 20 individuals who were Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, 22 individuals who were Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
and 5 individuals who belonged to another church. 281 (or about 2.42% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....
or atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, and 406 individuals (or about 3.50% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education
In Brig-Glis about 4,245 or (36.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 1,344 or (11.6%) have completed additional higher education (either University or a FachhochschuleFachhochschule
A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...
). Of the 1,344 who completed tertiary schooling, 61.8% were Swiss men, 21.4% were Swiss women, 10.2% were non-Swiss men and 6.6% were non-Swiss women.
During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 1,243 students in the Brig-Glis school system. The education system
Education in Switzerland
The education system in Switzerland is very diverse, because the constitution of Switzerland delegates the authority for the school system mainly to the cantons...
in the Canton of Valais allows young children to attend one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
. During that school year, there 9 kindergarten classes (KG1 or KG2) and 192 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school. In Brig-Glis there were a total of 41 classes and 802 students in the primary school.
The secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling (orientation classes), followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. There were 441 lower secondary students who attended school in Brig-Glis. There were 1,451 upper secondary students in the municipality and 3 schools in the municipality The first school, the Spiritus Sanctus has 941 students and 43 classes. The second school, the HSK Brig (with KSS) has 102 students and 9 classes. The final school, the HMS-FMS-SfB (Trade school-vocational school-school for vocational preparation) has 408 students and 19 classes.
, there were 1,177 students in Brig-Glis who came from another municipality, while 306 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Brig-Glis is home to the Mediathek Wallis - Brig library. The library has 95,906 books or other media, and loaned out 195,233 items in the same year. It was open a total of 260 days with average of 53 hours per week during that year.
Weather
Brig is popular among winter sport athletes, since it is surrounded by many Alp summits. The town itself lies close to RhoneRhône River
The Rhone is one of the major rivers of Europe, rising in Switzerland and running from there through southeastern France. At Arles, near its mouth on the Mediterranean Sea, the river divides into two branches, known as the Great Rhone and the Little Rhone...
river. Due to the high altitude, the temperatures in winter often remain below zero, resulting in frost. During the summer season, heat can be intense.