Göschenen (, ) is a village and municipality in the canton of Uri in Switzerland. It sits at the northern end of the Gotthard tunnel. The Göschenen riots (1875) saw Urner troops opening fire on Italian miners demonstrating for better working conditions and wages on the tunnel's construction site.

Name

Göschenen is first mentioned in 1280 as Gesschenden. The name is from Rumantsch *cascina (modern caschigna) "alpine hut", from Latin capsum "corral", but influenced by the word for cheese, cascio. The e in the first syllable is due to Germanic i-umlaut, changed to ö in modern spelling is a hypercorrection based on the phonology of the dialect of Uri.

Geography

thumb|left|[[Göschenen railway station right above the entrance to the Gotthard Tunnel]]

thumb|Aerial view (1963)

Göschenen has an area, , of . Of this area, 7.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 11.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.9% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (80.4%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

Göschenen and its railway station are located at the northern end of the Gotthard Road Tunnel and the Gotthard Rail Tunnel. The village grew up around a bridge over the Reuss. The Schöllenen Gorge in the Reuss Valley between Andermatt and Göschenen is the location of the infamous Devil's Bridge. A very short railway line, the Schöllenenbahn, connects Göschenen railway station with Andermatt railway station, via the Schöllenen Gorge.

Until 1875 it was part of the municipality of Wassen. It consists of the village of Göschenen and the hamlets of Abfrutt and the Göscheneralp.

Demographics

thumb|left|Goschenen church

Göschenen has a population (as of ) of . , 4.2% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -26.9%. Most of the population () speaks German (94.9%), with Portuguese being second most common ( 2.0%) and Spanish being third ( 1.2%). the gender distribution of the population was 49.3% male and 50.7% female.

In the 2007 federal election the FDP party received 90.4% of the vote.

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! year

! population

|-

| 1837

| 344

|-

| 1850

| 348

|-

| 1880

| 2,992

|-

| 1900

| 773

|-

| 1920

| 974

|-

| 1950

| 698

|-

| 1960

| 1,284

|-

| 1970

| 888

|-

| 2000

| 511

|-

| 2005

| 473

|-

| 2007

| 450

|-

| 2010

| 410

|-

|}

: Population increase due to construction of the Gotthard rail tunnel.

Weather

thumb|right|Göschenen in winter

Göschenen has an average of 151.4 days of rain per year and on average receives of precipitation. The wettest month is April during which time Göschenen receives an average of of precipitation. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 14.2 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is May, with an average of 15.3, but with only of precipitation. The driest month of the year is September with an average of of precipitation over 14.2 days.

References

  • Wages Switzerland