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Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; ; ; [biːu]) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the country's tenth-largest city by population. The Biel urban area has a population of around 100,000 inhabitants. Biel/Bienne is the capital of the Biel/Bienne administrative district. The city has been an industrial and watchmaking heart of Switzerland since the 19th century. With world-famous watch brands such as Rolex, Omega and Swatch based in Biel/Bienne, the city is one of the main centres of the Swiss watch industry and is also referred to as the "world capital of watchmaking".

Biel/Bienne lies on the language boundary between the French-speaking and German-speaking parts of Switzerland, and is bilingual throughout. Biel is the German name for the city whereas Bienne is its French counterpart. The city is often referred to in both languages simultaneously. Since 1 January 2005, the official name has been "Biel/Bienne". Until then, the town was officially named Biel or Bienne.

The city lies at the foot of the first mountain range of the Jura Mountains area, guarding the only practical connection to Jura, on the northeastern shores of Lake Biel (, ), sharing the eastern tip of the lake with its sister town, Nidau. The cities of Neuchâtel, Solothurn, and Bern (the capital of Switzerland) lie southwest, northeast and southeast of Biel/Bienne. They all can be reached within about 30 minutes by train or car. The cities of Zurich, Basel and Lausanne can each be reached in about one hour by car or train.

History

Prehistoric settlements

thumb|left|Biel/Bienne in 1546

The shoreline of Lake Biel has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic age. The remains of two neolithic settlements were found at Vingelz in 1874. The remains of the settlements became the Vingelz / Hafen archaeological site, which is now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. East of the Vingelz site, a late Bronze Age settlement was also discovered. After the Roman conquest, the region was part of Germania Superior. During the Roman era the Roman road from Petinesca to Pierre Pertuis or Salodurum (now Solothurn) passed through the village of Mett, which is now part of Biel/Bienne. The foundations of buildings and a 4th-century cemetery in Mett come from a late Roman or an early medieval military guard station.

A theory holds that the toponym is derived from the name of Belenus, probably from a Roman era sanctuary of that deity at a sacred spring nearby. However, no surviving records or inscriptions confirm this theory. Another theory states that the town grew up around a late Roman fortress. While no trace of the fortress has been found, the foundations of several Roman buildings have been found east of the medieval town.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the town's population was at 30,000 people. It doubled over the next 60 years, peaking at 65,000 in the mid-1960s. It declined gradually over the 1970s to 1990s, to below 49,000 in 2000, again rising slightly to just over 50,000 during the 2000s. Another 89,000 people live in the immediately surrounding urban agglomeration.

thumb|Aerial view by [[Walter Mittelholzer (1925)]]

Geography and climate

Topology

thumb|300px|Lake Bienne with part of Biel/Bienne in the background

Biel/Bienne has an area of .<!--21.23 - 21.25 km2--> Of this area, or 8.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 45.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 45.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.6% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.7% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 5.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 21.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 12.6%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.7% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 4.1%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 4.7% is used for growing crops and 2.0% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

|date=August 2010

Politics

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules two Axes Argent in saltire.

Subdivisions

Government

The Municipal Council (fr: Conseil municipal, de: Gemeinderat) constitutes the executive government of the City of Biel/Bienne and operates as a collegiate authority. It is composed of five councilors (, ), each presiding over a directorate. The president of the presidential directorate acts as mayor (fr: Maire, de: Stadtpräsident). In the mandate period 2021–2024 (législature, Legislatur) the Municipal Council is presided by Maire/ Stadtpräsident Erich Fehr. Departmental tasks, coordination measures and implementation of laws decreed by the City Council (parliament) are carried by the Municipal Council. The regular election of the Municipal Council by any inhabitant valid to vote is held every four years. Any resident of Biel/Bienne allowed to vote can be elected as a member of the Municipal Council. The current mandate period is from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2024. The mayor is elected as such by public election by means of a system of Majorz, while the heads of the other directorates are assigned by the collegiate. The delegates are selected by means of a system of Proporz.

, Biel/Bienne's Municipal Council is made up of two representatives of the PS/SP (Social Democratic Party, of whom one is also the mayor), one member of the Grünes Bündnis (GB) (Green Party), one of the PRR (Les Radicaux Romands), and one of the UDC/SVP (Swiss People's Party), giving the left parties a majority of three out of five seats. The last regular election was held on 27 September 2020. The mayor has been reelected with 6889 votes (57.16%) and the voter turnout was 39.4%.

{|class="wikitable"

|+ Le Conseil municipal of Biel/Bienne

! Municipal Councillor<br />(Conseiller communal/ Conseillère communale,<br />Stadtrat/ Stadträtin) !! Party !! Head of Directorate (Directeur/Directrice de,<br />Direktor/Direktorin, since) of !! elected since || Native language

|-

| Erich Fehr || PS || Mayor's Office (mairie/ Präsidialdirektion, 2011) || 2010 || DE

|-

| Silvia Steidle || PRR || Finance (Direction des finances/ Finanzdirektion, 2009) || 2008 || FR

|-

| Beat Feurer || SVP || Social Services and Security (Direction de l'action sociale et de la sécurité/ Direktion Soziales und Sicherheit, 2013) || 2012 || DE

|-

| Glenda Gonzalez Bassi || PSR || Education, Culture, and Sports (Direction de la formation, de la culture et du sport/ Direktion Bildung, Kultur und Sport, 2021) || 2020 || FR

|-

| Lena Frank || GB || Civil Engineering and Construction, Energy, and Environmental Sustainability (Direction des travaux publics, de l'énergie et de l'environnement/ Direktion Bau, Energie und Umwelt, 2021) || 2020 || DE

|}

Barbara Labbé is Town Chancellor (chancelière municipale/ Stadtschreiberin) since, and Bertrand Cottier is Deputy Town Chancellor (vice-chancelier/ Vize-Stadtschreiber) since for the Municipal Council.

Parliament

The City Council (fr: Conseil de ville, de: Stadtrat), the city parliament, holds legislative power. It is made up of 60 members, with elections held every four years. The City Council decrees regulations and by-laws that are executed by the Municipal Council and the administration. The delegates are selected by means of a system of proportional representation.

The sessions of the City Council are public. Unlike members of the Municipal Council, members of the City Council are not politicians by profession, and they are paid a fee based on their attendance. Any resident of Biel/Bienne allowed to vote can be elected as a member of the City Council. The Parliament holds its meetings in the Stadtratssaal.

The last regular election of the City Council was held on 27 September 2020 for the mandate period (la législature) from 2021 to 2024. The voter turnout was 39.23%. In the federal election a total of 11,096 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 35.9%.

In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the SP/PS which received 32.0% (+0.8) of the vote. The next five most popular parties were the SVP/UDC (22.0%, +2.1), the Green Party (13.9%, -0.8), PLR/FDP (9.4%, +1.4), the glp/pvl (8.9%, +3.3), and the BDP/PBD (7.0%).

International relations

Biel/Bienne is twinned with:

  • Iserlohn, Germany (since 1959)

Demographics

Population

thumb|Apartments and street market near the train station

thumb|Small apartments in the Mösliquartier/Petit-Marais

Biel/Bienne has a population () of . , 28.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 3.8%. Migration accounted for 7.8%, while births and deaths accounted for −1.4%.

Of the population in the municipality, 15,339 or about 31.5% were born in Biel/Bienne and lived there in 2000. There were 8,990 or 18.5% who were born in the same canton, while 9,170 or 18.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 12,244 or 25.2% were born outside of Switzerland.

, there were 11,014 households that consist of only one person and 797 households with five or more people. , a total of 23,367 apartments (86.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 2,169 apartments (8.1%) were seasonally occupied and 1,398 apartments (5.2%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 3.2 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2%.

Historic population

The historical population is given in the following chart:

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{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed"

! colspan="12" | Historic Population Data

In recent years the city has used its linguistic assets as an economic advantage, becoming the Swiss City of Communication. Several call centres have been created in or around Biel, in addition to the traditional businesses established in the city and surrounding area, which have always exported most of their production worldwide.

Religion

According to the , 19,191 people or 39.4% of the total population, belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 14,241 or 29.3% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there were 613 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.26% of the population), there were 87 individuals (or about 0.18% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 2,870 individuals (or about 5.90% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 61 individuals (or about 0.13% of the population) who were Jewish, and 3,156 (or about 6.49% of the population) who were Muslim. There were 329 individuals who were Buddhist, 235 individuals who were Hindu and 68 individuals who belonged to another church. 6,012 (or about 12.36% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 3,180 individuals (or about 6.54% of the population) did not answer the question.

Heritage sites of national significance

The Alte Krone/La vieille Couronne, the artist's studio Atelier Robert, the former Rockhall Manor, the main train station, the Jordi-Kocher House, the Catholic parish Church of St. Maria Immaculata, the Kongresshaus/Palais des Congrès (Convention Center), the Kontrollgebäude at Zentralstrasse 49 / Oberer Quai 2, the Neuhaus Museum with the Robert Foundation Collection, the Schwab Museum, the Swiss Reformed City Church, the administration building and montage hall for General Motors, the Volkshaus Building and the Waldleute Zunft Building are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire town of Biel/Bienne and the Taubenlochschlucht canyon are both part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

<gallery>

File:Alte Krone Biel.jpg|Alte Krone, Vieille Couronne

File:Atelier Paul Robert Biel.jpg|Atelier Robert

File:Biennerockahll.jpg|The former Rockhall Manor building

File:2005-Biel-Bahnhof.jpg|Main Train Station

File:Biel - Jordi - Kocher Haus.jpg|Jordi-Kocher House

File:St Maria Immaculata (Biel).jpg|Catholic parish church of St. Maria Immaculata

File:2005-Biel-Kongresshaus.jpg|Kongresshaus, Palais des congrès, (Convention Center)

File:Biel - Kontrollgebäude.jpg|Kontrollgebäude at Zentralstrasse 49 / Oberer Quai 2

File:Museum Neuhaus Biel 01 09.jpg|Museum Neuhaus

File:Museum Schwab Biel 01 09.jpg|Museum Schwab

File:Old town church in Biel.jpg|Swiss Reformed City Church

File:Biel Montagewerk GM 01.jpg|Administration Building and Montage Hall for General Motors

File:Biel Volkshaus 01a.jpg|Volkshaus, Maison du Peuple Building

File:Biel Zunfthaus.jpg|Waldleute Zunft Building

File:Taubenloch3.jpg|Bridge in Taubenlochschlucht

</gallery>

World Heritage Site

It is home to the . Vingelz / Hafen is a prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements that is part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Vingelz / Hafen site is buried under mud near the shore of Lake Biel. It is one of the best preserved sites on the lake and has had minimal research. Based on the limited studies done on the village, it was occupied around 2970–2820 BC and again in 2780–2695 BC. About 60 wood samples have been dendrochronologically dated. The site was discovered in 1874 by Eduard von Fellenberg while he was excavating a dug-out canoe. In 1985 a series of test borings identified the two archaeological layers with a total thickness of about . A text excavation in 1998 found textile remains and a complete axe handle and blade.

Business

thumb|Rolex building in Biel/Bienne

The city and surrounding area are home to companies that design and manufacture specialised machinery and precision tools. Between 1936 and 1975 General Motors Suisse SA assembled over 300,000 General Motors automobiles here, mainly for the Swiss domestic market but also for export to neighboring countries and Yugoslavia. The city is also notable as a center of watchmaking:

  • Rolex movement and technical parts production
  • Swatch Group has several of its brand headquarters here, especially Omega SA and Swatch.
  • The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH
  • Glycine Watch SA manufacturing and administration
  • Doxa S.A. headquarters

As of 2011, Biel/Bienne had an unemployment rate of 3.95%. , there were a total of 33,799 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 56 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 10 businesses involved in this sector. 9,421 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 451 businesses in this sector. 24,322 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 2,267 businesses in this sector.

, there were 17,680 workers who commuted into the municipality and 7,990 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 2.2 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. Of the working population, 31.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 37.8% used a private car.

During the 2009–10 school year, there were a total of 5,733 students attending classes in Biel/Bienne. There were 27 kindergarten classes with a total of 497 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 36.2% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 66.0% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 79 primary classes and 1,470 students. Of the primary students, 32.9% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 53.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 53 lower secondary classes with a total of 981 students. There were 23.6% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 29.6% have a different mother language than the classroom language.

, there were 3,008 students in Biel/Bienne who came from another municipality, while 517 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Culture

thumb|right|[[Expo.02|National Exposition in 2002]]

The newspapers Bieler Tagblatt and Journal du Jura as well as the only totally bilingual German/French newspaper Biel-Bienne with its large free distribution within the greater area, are published in Biel.

The domicile of the Theater Biel Solothurn is situated in the old town.

The town is also known for its annual International Chess Festival.

The town of Biel/Bienne received the Wakker Prize in 2004.

Each June since 1959, Biel has hosted a 100 km Ultramarathon race, which is among the biggest races of its kind worldwide and forms a part of the European Ultramarathon Cup.

Transport

thumb|right|Biel/Bienne's [[Biel/Bienne railway station|central railway station]]

Biel/Bienne is very well connected to its region and to Switzerland as well.

The public transport in and around Biel/Bienne is operated by Verkehrsbetriebe Biel/Transports publics biennois, which is integrated into the fare network libero with coordinated timetables, which in itself covers the area of canton of Bern and Solothurn.

The fare network includes any mode of public transport, such as any kind of train (including the urban S-Bahn), PostAuto buses, trams, buses (either trolleybuses or motorized buses) and others. Fares are based on the number of zones crossed during a specified time and are independent of the mode of transport or the number of connections. Most part of Biel/Bienne and including Nidau belong to fare zone 300, including Vingelz/Vigneules in the southwest at the lake, but excluding Hohfluh on the Magglingen funicular and the Bözigerfeld/Champs-de-Boujean in the northeast, which belong to zone 301.

The circle fare zone 301 around Biel/Bienne also includes Tüscherz in the southwest, Hohfluh, Evilard, and Frinvillier (, through the Taubenlochschlucht) in the west, and Orpund, Scheuren, Schwadernau, Brügg, Aegerten, and Studen in the east, and Port, Ipsach, Bellmund, Jens, Merzligen, and Hermrigen in the south of the municipality.

Biel/Bienne railway station is not only the central network nucleus of Biel/Bienne, but also of the whole urban and inter-regional region. It connects the town to the regional, national and international railways network (Neuchâtel – Lausanne - Geneva, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Bern, Grenchen – Delémont – Basel, Solothurn – Olten – Luzern/Zürich – St. Gallen, and the canton of Jura). It is a central railway junction on the fast east–(south-)west line and on the Basel–Bern line. The station is Switzerland's thirteenth most busy railway station (about 52,0000 passengers per working day in 2016).

One funicular railways leads to the national sports center of Magglingen/Macolin on the higher Jura mountain in the west, and the other, the Bienne-Evilard Funicular, to the city hospital and to neighbouring municipality Evilard to northwest, both above the town on the eastern range of the Jura Mountains. The high, flat pastures and wood of Magglingen/Macolin span about from northeast to southwest at an altitude between . The Magglingen/Macolin Funicular often leads to sunshine while Biel/Bienne is covered by low hanging clouds.

The port at the north-eastern end of Lake Biel is a starting point for leisurely journeys to the three lakes of Biel, Neuchâtel, and Murten/Morat through the Three-Lakes Landscape, which are all connected by navigable channels and rivers. The port is situated on the west side of the main railway station between the exit of the river Schüss/La Suze arriving from the Jura in the west through the Taubenlochschlucht (Swiss German for pigeon hole gorge) and the navigable Nidau-Büren Canal with connections as far as Solothurn.

Several bridges over the Nidau-Büren Canal connect the town to its south/eastern suburbs.

Biel/Bienne is well connected to other Swiss cities by several motorways (A6 to Bern, and via A5 to both, the Jura and Basel, Luzern, Zurich, St. Gallen).

The town is very well connected to all Swiss international airports: Geneva Airport (1:40h), EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg (1:30h), and Zurich Airport (1:30h), also serve as international gateways, all reachable within about the same time by direct train from Biel/Bienne.

Sport

  • EHC Biel, the professional ice hockey team
  • FC Biel-Bienne, the football club.

Notable people

Honoured citizen

  • Nicolas Hayek (1928–2010), Lebanese-American Swiss businessman, co-founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board of The Swatch Group. Promoted to honourable citizenship in 2004, official ceremony held on 19 February 2005

140px|thumb|Eduard Bloesch

140px|thumb|René Felber

140px|thumb|Franz Hohler, 2008

140px|thumb|Ares, 2010

140px|thumb|Martina Kocher, 2016

Born in Biel/Bienne

; Middle ages

  • Thomas Wyttenbach (c. 1472–1526), one of the reformers of the city of Biel during the Protestant Reformation.
  • Emanuel Witz (1717–1797), Swiss painter
  • Eduard Blösch (1807–1866), Swiss politician, President of the Swiss National Council 1855–1856
  • Léo-Paul Robert (1851–1923), Swiss painter

; 19th century

  • Karl Walser (1877–1943), Swiss painter, stage designer, illustrator, muralist and artist
  • Robert Walser (1878–1956), German-speaking Swiss writer
  • Ernst Dubach (1881–1982), Swiss racing cyclist, the Swiss National Road Race champion in 1902
  • Louis Rivier (1885–1963), Swiss painter, writer, and stained glass artist
  • Hans Zulliger (1893–1965), Swiss teacher, child psychoanalyst and author
  • Anna Renfer (1896–1984), Swiss composer

; 20th century

  • Jean-Louis Jeanmaire (1910–1992), brigadier in the Swiss army who passed highly classified Swiss military secrets to the Soviet Union from 1962 until he retired in 1975
  • Roland Kuhn (1912–2005), Swiss psychiatrist who discovered that the drug imipramine had antidepressant properties
  • Walter Kistler (1918–2015), physicist, inventor and philanthropist
  • Maurice Edmond Müller (1918–2009), orthopedic surgeon, developed internal fixation techniques to fix bone fractures
  • Géo Voumard (1920–2008), Swiss jazz pianist and composer, co-founded the Montreux Jazz Festival
  • Felix Villars (1921–2002), American professor of physics at MIT, worked in quantum field theory, emigrated in 1949
  • Henriette Grindat (1923–1986), Swiss photographer, contributed to artistic photography, taking a Surrealist approach
  • René Felber (1933–2020), Swiss politician, member of the Swiss Federal Council 1987–1993
  • Raymond Bruckert (1935–2017), writer of novels and educational books
  • Ernst Thomke (born 1939), businessman, corporate saviour by interventions
  • Franz Hohler (born 1943), author of one-man and satirical programs for TV and radio, and cabaret artist.
  • Christian Philipp Müller (born 1957), Swiss artist
  • Thomas Jordan (born 1963), chairman of the Swiss National Bank
  • Ian Christe (born 1970), author, disc jockey and the publisher of Bazillion Points Books
  • Denis Simonet (born 1985), Swiss Pirate Party politician
  • Nemo Mettler (born 1999), singer and rapper; Swiss representative and winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024

; Sport

  • Nicolas Bührer (born 1944), Swiss entrepreneur and former racing driver
  • Enzo Calderari (born 1952), Swiss entrepreneur and former racing driver
  • Robert Lüthi (born 1958), retired Swiss footballer, played 291 games for Neuchâtel Xamax
  • Markus Graf (born 1959), Swiss former ice hockey player, coach, and executive
  • Étienne Dagon (born 1960), former breaststroke swimmer, bronze medallist at the 1984 Summer Olympics
  • Sven Christ (born 1973), Swiss football manager and former football player with 427 games
  • Andréa Zimmermann (born 1976), Swiss ski mountaineer and mountain runner
  • Yannick Pelletier (born 1976), Swiss chess player who lives in Paris
  • Marcel Fischer (born 1978), Swiss fencer, gold medallist in the Men's Épée Individual at the 2004 Summer Olympics
  • Ares (Marco Jaggi) (born 1980), Swiss professional wrestler and wrestling trainer
  • Raphael Nuzzolo (born 1983), Swiss professional footballer, played over 475 games
  • Martina Kocher (born 1985), Swiss luger, competed in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics
  • Pietro Di Nardo (born 1990), Swiss professional footballer, played over 250 games
  • Gregory Hofmann (born 1992), professional ice hockey player
  • Nicola Todeschini (born 1997), Swiss figure skater
  • Aurèle Amenda (born 2003), Swiss professional footballer

; Music

  • Nemo Mettler (born 1999), Swiss rapper and winner of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest

Lived in Biel/Bienne

140px|thumb|Daniel Gisiger, 2011

  • Paul Käser (1904–??), Swiss rower active in the 1920s and 1930s
  • Henri Dubuis (1906–2003), Swiss architect, designed and built the Volkshaus in Biel/Bienne in 1932
  • Daniel Gisiger (born 1954), retired Swiss road and track cyclist
  • Jonas Kocher (born 1977), musician, accordionist and composer
  • Arno Camenisch (born 1978), Swiss writer in German and Romansh
  • Henri Laaksonen (born 1992), Swiss-Finnish tennis player
  • Oliver Hegi (born 1993), Swiss male artistic gymnast and member of the national team
  • Jil Teichmann (born 1997), Spanish-born Swiss tennis player
  • Félicienne Lusamba Villoz-Muamba (1956–2019), Congolese-Swiss politician and activist

<gallery mode=packed>

File:Swiss-bienne-city-1.JPG|Lake Bienne

File:Parc municipal2005.JPG|town's park

File:CH Biel Schüss.JPG|the river Suze

File:Picswiss BE-98-55 Biel Bienne- Funiculaire nach Magglingen (Macolin).jpg|Funiculaire Bienne–Macolin

File:Biel.jpg|Place du Ring

File:CH Biel Altstadt-2.JPG|old town

File:CH Biel Altstadt-6.jpg|old town

File:CH Biel Altstadt-8.JPG|old town

</gallery>

See also

  • Cimier

Notes

References

  • Official website of Biel/Bienne
  • Tourism Biel Seeland
  • Biel International Chess Festival
  • Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH
  • Chamber of economy Biel-Seeland