Paspels
Encyclopedia
Paspels is a municipality
Municipalities of Switzerland
Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...

 in the district of Hinterrhein
Hinterrhein (district)
Hinterrhein District is an administrative district in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has an area of and has a population of .Hinterrhein District consists of five Kreise and twenty-eight municipalities...

 in the Swiss
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....

 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...

 of 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...

.

History

Paspels is first mentioned in 1237 as in villa Pascuals though the original record no longer exists. In 1246 it was mentioned as de Pascuals.

Geography

Paspels has an area, , of 4.6 km² (1.8 sq mi). Of this area, 33.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 56.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 6.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (3.9%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

The municipality is located in the Domleschg sub-district, of the Hinterrhein district. It consists of a linear village
Linear village
In geography, a linear village, or linear settlement, is a small to medium-sized settlement that is formed around a transport route, such as a road, river, or canal. Wraysbury, a village in Berkshire, is one of the longest villages in England....

 and a haufendorf (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) on a terrace above the Hinterrhine
Hinterrhein (river)
The Hinterrhein is one of the initial tributaries of the Rhine in the Canton of Graubünden in Switzerland, flowing from the village Hinterrhein near the San Bernardino pass through the Rheinwald valley into a gorge called Roflaschlucht...

 as well as the hamlets
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 of Dusch and Canova.

Canovasee
Canovasee
Canovasee is a lake in Paspels, Grisons, Switzerland.In 2004, the "First Love, Last Rites" was filmed at the lake.-External links:*...

 is a lake located in the municipality.

Demographics

Paspels has a population (as of ) of . , 3.1% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 11.8%.

, the gender distribution of the population was 47.4% male and 52.6% female. The age distribution, , in Paspels is; 72 people or 17.6% of the population are between 0 to 9 years old. 29 people or 7.1% are 10 to 14, and 19 people or 4.6% are 15 to 19. Of the adult population, 26 people or 6.4% of the population are between 20 to 29 years old. 65 people or 15.9% are 30 to 39, 70 people or 17.1% are 40 to 49, and 46 people or 11.2% are 50 to 59. The senior population distribution is 38 people or 9.3% of the population are between 60 to 69 years old, 26 people or 6.4% are 70 to 79, there are 16 people or 3.9% who are 80 to 89, and there are 2 people or 0.5% who are 90 to 99.

In the 2007 federal election
Swiss 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 SPS
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 which received 39.7% 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...

 (23%), the FDP
Free Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Free Democratic Party was a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It was one of the major parties in Switzerland until its merger with the smaller classical liberal Liberal Party, to form FDP.The Liberals on 1 January 2009....

 (17.8%) and 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...

 (15.7%).

In Paspels about 81.5% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule
Fachhochschule
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...

).

Paspels has an unemployment rate of 0.6%. , there were 18 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 6 businesses involved in this sector. 8 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 3 businesses in this sector. 63 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 14 businesses in this sector.

The historical population is given in the following table:
year population
1808 245
1850 323
1900 302
1950 350
1960 286
1970 289
1980 318
1990 358
2000 409

Languages

Most of the population speaks German (94.4%), with Romansh being second most common ( 3.7%) and Italian being third ( 1.0%).
Languages in Paspels
Languages Census 1980 Census 1990 Census 2000
Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
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....

 
246 77.36 % 320 89.39 % 386 94.38 %
Romanish 63 19.81 % 31 8.66 % 15 3.67 %
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...

 
3 0.94 % 3 0.84 % 4 0.98 %
Population 318 100 % 358 100 % 409 100 %

Heritage sites of national significance

The Church of S. Luregn/St. Lorenz and the Chapel of S. Maria-Magdalena in the hamlet of Dusch are listed as Swiss heritage sites 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 early medieval
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...

 Church of S. Luregn/St. Lorenz was first mentioned in 1237. It was the 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....

 for the right side of the Hinterrhein valley. The Chapel of S. Maria-Magdalena was built in 1508 and was initially under the monastery of Churwalden
Churwalden
Churwalden is a municipality in the district of Plessur in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. On 1 January 2010 the municipalities of Malix and Parpan merged into Churwalden.-History:...

. However, in the 16th Century, the hamlet of Dusch converted to the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

and therefore the chapel was also converted.

External links

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