Büren an der Aare (usually abbreviated with Büren a.A., means Büren on the Aare) is a historic town and a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
History Büren an der Aare is first mentioned in 1185 as Buirro. In 1236 it was mentioned as Buron. The formerly independent village of Reiben was first mentioned in 1309. It became part of Büren an der Aare in 1911.
The earliest trace of humans in Büren are scattered neolithic and La Tene items. The Roman era road between Aventicum and Salodurum (Solothurn) runs through the area that would become the municipality. Roman ruins include part of the road and a milestone at Bürenmoos, a canal at Burgweg and what may have been a country estate on Kirchmatt. Above the town, on the Schlosshubel hill, was the high medieval Strassberg Castle, the home of the Baron of Strassberg. The town was built on a narrow strip of land between the Städtiberg and the Aare. The town received a town charter from Berchtold I of Strassberg in 1260, which was confirmed in 1288. Under the Barons, the town became the center of the Büren Herrschaft. During the 13th and 14th centuries, the Counts of Neuchâtel gained power in the Herrschaft. In 1345, financial difficulties forced Imer of Strassberg to pledge some rights in the town to Solothurn. In 1369 Solothurn also acquired the right to collect duties and tolls in Büren. In 1375 Enguerrand de Coucy besieged the town, but did not take it. After Imer's death the town was inherited by the Counts of Neu-Kyburg, who then sold it to Austria. During the Sempach War, Büren was besieged and captured by Bern and in 1388 it was placed under joint Bern-Solothurn control. In 1393, the captured land was finally divided and Büren became the capital of a new Bernese bailiwick. In 1620-25 Büren Castle was built on the main street as the official residence of the Bernese bailiff.
The oldest part of the town church of St. Catherine is the choir from the third quarter of the 13th century. The rest of the church was completed between then and 1500. By 1375 it was an independent parish church.
The town council appointed its first recorded Schultheiss in 1254. The oldest town seal is from 1273. The 1288 town charter granted it the right to hold markets. In 1284, a toll bridge over the Aare was first mentioned. In 1478, the salt, iron, steel, wool and linen markets came under Bernese control. The town had both a market square and docks on the Aare as well as inns and warehouses to encourage traders to come to Büren. In 1481, weekly markets were added to the quarterly fairs that they had been holding. The town's economy was based on both trade and agriculture. During the 15th and 16th century a new town hall was built with a market hall on the ground floor. In the 16th century a hospital and school opened. Starting in the 15th century, the town began operating mountain pastures, a dairy and a cheese-maker as a fief of the Prince-Bishop of Basel. The now disused brickworks was first mentioned in 1630.
After the 1798 French invasion, it became the capital of the Helvetic Republic's Büren District. After the Act of Mediation and the Congress of Vienna the district remained as a part of the Canton of Bern.
During the 19th century, the town began to decline. No major railway line passes through it and water transportation had declined in importance. In 1876 the regional Lyss-Solothurn railway line connected the town to its neighbors. A few small factories moved in including watch manufactures, but they have since closed. Only the old gear and machinery factory (built in 1946) and a meat processing plant (built in 1945) remain of the older factories. However, a new anodizing and electronics moved into Büren in the end of the 20th century. The Nidau-Büren channel, built in 1868–75, helped protect the town from flooding and opened up new agricultural land. The cultivation of sugar beets and livestock remain important. During World War II it was the site of the largest refugee camp in Switzerland. The wooden bridge was built in 1821 and replaced in 1991 after a fire 1991. In addition to the district administration, Büren is home to the forestry office, the secondary school, a nursing home and an outpatient hospital care facility.
Geography
Büren an der Aare had an area, (as of the 2004/09 survey) of . Of this area, about 46.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 34.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 11.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and 7.6% is unproductive land. Of the unproductive land, or 7.1% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.6% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics 2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Over the past two decades (1979/85-2004/09) the amount of land that is settled has increased by and the agricultural land has decreased by .Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Regional portraits accessed 27 October 2016
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 7.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.3%. Out of the forested land, 32.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 40.2% is used for growing crops and 5.1% is pastures, while 1.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 3.9% is in lakes and 3.2% is in rivers and streams.
The municipality is located on the right bank of the Aare, while the formerly independent village of Reiben is on the left bank. It consists of the town of Büren an der Aare, the surrounding agricultural villages of Scheuren, Gummen and Oberbüren, the new developments of Rütifeld and Ziegelei (Gewerbezone), scattered farm houses and since 1911 Reiben.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Büren, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Seeland.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz accessed 4 April 2011
Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a Bear paw Argent issuant from chief sinister.Flags of the World.com accessed 17-August-2012
Demographics
Büren an der Aare has a population () of . , 16.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 4 years (2010-2014) the population has changed at a rate of 5.93%. The birth rate in the municipality, in 2014, was 8.7, while the death rate was 9.9 per thousand residents.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.9% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) are 61.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.8%. In 2015 there were 1,500 single residents, 1,532 people who were married or in a civil partnership, 199 widows or widowers and 306 divorced residents.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Ständige und nichtständige Wohnbevölkerung nach institutionellen Gliederungen, Geschlecht, Zivilstand und Geburtsort accessed 8 September 2016
In 2014 there were 1,539 private households in Büren an der Aare with an average household size of 2.20 persons. Of the 733 inhabited buildings in the municipality, in 2000, about 54.8% were single family homes and 19.5% were multiple family buildings. Additionally, about 23.1% of the buildings were built before 1919, while 11.1% were built between 1991 and 2000.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Thema 09 - Bau- und Wohnungswesen accessed 5 May 2016 In 2013 the rate of construction of new housing units per 1000 residents was 1.45. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.14%. , there were 445 households that consist of only one person and 70 households with five or more people. , a total of 1,279 apartments (89.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 92 apartments (6.4%) were seasonally occupied and 62 apartments (4.3%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen accessed 28 January 2011Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 17-August-2012
Most of the population () speaks German (2,800 or 91.0%) as their first language, Italian is the second most common (51 or 1.7%) and French is the third (38 or 1.2%). There are 2 people who speak Romansh.
, the population was 49.1% male and 50.9% female. The population was made up of 1,359 Swiss men (41.8% of the population) and 238 (7.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,457 Swiss women (44.8%) and 19 (0.6%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 999 or about 32.5% were born in Büren an der Aare and lived there in 2000. There were 986 or 32.0% who were born in the same canton, while 553 or 18.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 374 or 12.2% were born outside of Switzerland.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000 accessed 2 February 2011
The historical population is given in the following chart:Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000 accessed 29 January 2011
Notable people
Prof. Bernhard Studer (1794 in Büren an der Aare – 1887) a 19th-century Swiss geologist Ernst Pflüger (1846 in Büren an der Aare – 1903) a Swiss ophthalmologist Gaston Strobino (1891 in Büren an der Aare – 1969) an American athlete, bronze medallist in the marathon at the 1912 Summer Olympics Markus Raetz (born 1941) a Swiss painter, illustrator and sculptor
Heritage sites of national significance
Büren Castle is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire old town of Büren an der Aare is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
Politics In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the SVP with 36.1% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (16.6%), the BDP (15.4%) and the FDP (10.1%). In the federal election, a total of 1,164 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 47.6%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Nationalratswahlen 2015: Stärke der Parteien und Wahlbeteiligung nach Gemeinden accessed 18 July 2016
In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 28.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the BDP Party (19.1%), the SPS (18.3%) and the FDP (9.5%). In the federal election, a total of 1,136 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 47.4%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election accessed 8 May 2012
Economy , there were a total of 1,893 people employed in the municipality. Of these, a total of 112 people worked in 32 businesses in the primary economic sector. In 2014 the primary sector numbers had increased by 165 and remained constant respectively. A minority (30.0% of the primary sector employees worked in very small businesses (less than ten employees). There was one small business with a total of 30 employees and one mid sized business with a total of 164 employees. The secondary sector employed 1,048 workers in 55 separate businesses. In 2014 the secondary sector numbers had decreased by 157 and increased by 1 respectively. A minority (19.6% of the secondary sector employees worked in very small businesses. There were 7 small businesses with a total of 250 employees and 3 mid sized businesses with a total of 466 employees. Finally, the tertiary sector provided 733 jobs in 182 businesses. In 2014 the tertiary sector numbers had decreased by 9 and 8 respectively. A majority (61.3% of the tertiary sector employees worked in very small businesses. There were 7 small businesses with a total of 194 employees and one mid sized business with a total of 86 employees.Federal Statistical Office -Arbeitsstätten und Beschäftigte nach Gemeinde, Wirtschaftssektor und Grössenklasse accessed 31 October 2016 In 2014 a total of 1.5% of the population received social assistance.