La Neuveville (; ) is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland, located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura (Jura Bernois).
History
thumb|left|Schlossberg Castle above La Neuveville
thumb|left|City gate of La Neuveville
thumb|Aerial view (1949)
La Neuveville is first mentioned in 1314 as Nova-villa.
During the same year, housing and buildings made up 10.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.7%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 3.8% is pastures, while 13.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in lakes.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules two Keys Argent in saltire on a Mount of 3 Coupeaux Sable.
Demographics
thumb|La Neuveville Old City
La Neuveville has a population () of . , 16.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001–2011) the population has changed at a rate of 1.6%. Migration accounted for 0.8%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.2%.
Most of the population () speaks French (2,644 or 76.7%) as their first language, German is the second most common (540 or 15.7%) and Italian is the third (100 or 2.9%). There are 3 people who speak Romansh. Of the population in the municipality, 904 or about 26.2% were born in La Neuveville and lived there in 2000. There were 893 or 25.9% who were born in the same canton, while 910 or 26.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 607 or 17.6% were born outside of Switzerland.
, there were 552 households that consist of only one person and 84 households with five or more people. , a total of 1,411 apartments (85.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 174 apartments (10.6%) were seasonally occupied and 62 apartments (3.8%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0.6 new units per 1000 residents.
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bar:1800 from:start till:1178 text:"1,178"
bar:1850 from:start till:1719 text:"1,719"
bar:1860 from:start till:1931 text:"1,931"
bar:1870 from:start till:2010 text:"2,010"
bar:1880 from:start till:2242 text:"2,242"
bar:1888 from:start till:2360 text:"2,360"
bar:1900 from:start till:2248 text:"2,248"
bar:1910 from:start till:2296 text:"2,296"
bar:1920 from:start till:2511 text:"2,511"
bar:1930 from:start till:2535 text:"2,535"
bar:1941 from:start till:2441 text:"2,441"
bar:1950 from:start till:2709 text:"2,709"
bar:1960 from:start till:3216 text:"3,216"
bar:1970 from:start till:3917 text:"3,917"
bar:1980 from:start till:3519 text:"3,519"
bar:1990 from:start till:3324 text:"3,324"
bar:2000 from:start till:3445 text:"3,445"
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Sights
Points of interest of the historical city are the Schlossberg, the city walls, the military defense towers, and the white church.
Burgundian cannons captured by the Swiss after the Battle of Grandson in 1476 are today housed in a museum in La Neuveville. It is one of the largest collections of medieval artillery in the world.
Heritage sites of national significance
The Blanche Église Réformée (White Church), the Cour Gléresse (also called the Hof Ligerz), the Fontaines Des Bannerets, the city walls, the Hôtel de Ville (town hall), the Maison de Berne and the Maison des Dragons are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire old town of La Neuveville and the hamlet of Chavannes are part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
<gallery>
File:Blanche-Eglise-La-Neuveville.jpg|Blanche Église Réformée (The White Church)
File:La Neuveville Hof Ligerz.jpg|Cour Gléresse / Hof Ligerz
File:Rue du marchè et la Tour Rouge, La Neuveville BE.jpg|Market street with Red Tower
File:La Neuveville Fontaines des Bannerets2.jpg|Fontaines Des Bannerets
File:La Neuveville3.JPG|View through the gate of the city fortifications
File:La Neuveville Rathaus.jpg|Hôtel de Ville (town hall)
File:La Neuveville Bernerhaus.jpg|Maison de Berne
File:Maison-Des-Dragons-La-Neuveville.jpg|Maison des Dragons
</gallery>
Politics
In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Social Democratic Party (SP) which received 29.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP.The Liberals (19.2%), the Swiss People's Party (SVP) (17.4%) and the Green Party (13%). In the federal election, a total of 1,016 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 42.1%.
Economy
thumb|La Neuveville train station
, La Neuveville had an unemployment rate of 1.7%. , there were a total of 1,468 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 48 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 20 businesses involved in this sector. 578 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 44 businesses in this sector. 842 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 127 businesses in this sector.
, there were 809 workers who commuted into the municipality and 928 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 722 workers (47.2% of the 1,531 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in La Neuveville.
Of the working population, 13.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 56.2% used a private car. For comparison, the average rate for the entire canton in 2006 was 13.9% and the nationwide rate was 11.6%. In 2009 there were a total of 1,538 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 603 made over 75 thousand CHF per year. There were 9 people who made between 15 and 20 thousand per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in La Neuveville was 132,219 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF.
Religion
thumb|upright|The White Church of La Neuveville
From the , 1,596 or 46.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 947 or 27.5% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there were 22 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.64% of the population), there were 7 individuals (or about 0.20% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 305 individuals (or about 8.85% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 individuals (or about 0.06% of the population) who were Jewish, and 83 (or about 2.41% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist, 1 person who was Hindu and 5 individuals who belonged to another church. 487 (or about 14.14% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 140 individuals (or about 4.06% of the population) did not answer the question.
During the 2011–12 school year, there were a total of 510 students attending classes in La Neuveville. There were 4 kindergarten classes with a total of 79 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 15.2% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 17.7% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 11 primary classes and 190 students. Of the primary students, 18.9% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 22.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 12 lower secondary classes with a total of 241 students. There were 14.5% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 17.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language.
, there were a total of 922 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 472 both lived and attended school in the municipality while 450 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 112 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Notable people
- Jules Gilliéron (1854 in La Neuveville – 1926) was a Swiss dialectologist and pioneer of linguistic geography.
- Jean Preudhomme (1732 – 1795 in La Neuveville) was a Swiss painter mainly of landscapes and animals, buried in La Neuveville .
- Sophie Wyss (1897 in La Neuveville – 1983) was a Swiss soprano who made her career as a concert singer and broadcaster in the UK.
References
External links
- La Neuveville's Official Website
- Swiss castle Schlossberg