Adelboden

Adelboden lies in the west of the Bernese Highlands, at the end of the valley of the river Entschlige (High German: Engstlige), which flows in Frutigen into the Kander. Adelboden is a traditional Swiss mountain village on a terrace looking south to the Engstligen waterfalls. Also part of the village are the inhabited valleys of Gilbach, Stigelschwand, Boden, Hirzboden, and Ausserschwand. The church and main street are at , the highest point of the area is the Grossstrubel with , and the lowest point is at in the Engstligen valley. The vegetation is alpine and sub-alpine, partially wooded, the slopes, the plateaus, and terraces usually alp meadows. The most salient mountains are Lohner (), Steghorn (), Wildstrubel (), Fitzer (), Tschenten () (mountain railway), Albristhorn () and Gsür (). Adelboden has an area of . Of this area, or 41.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 18.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 2.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.7% is either rivers or lakes and or 36.2% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.8%. Out of the forested land, 14.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 8.5% is pastures and 32.9% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 9.6% is unproductive vegetation, 25.6% is too rocky for vegetation and 1.1% of the land is covered by glaciers. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent on a Mount Vert an Eagle displayed Sable beaked, langued and membered Gules. ==History==

Adelboden is first mentioned in 1409 as in valle Adelboden. In 1453, it was mentioned as Adelboden alias silva. Internees included British, German, Polish, Russian, Czech, and French combatants. American internees named the area “Camp Maloney” after the first American internee to die. ==Main sights and cultural events==

• Engstligen Falls: the river Entschlige falls over rocks into the depth and forms one of the most impressive waterfalls in the Bernese Highlands. Very impressive is the "Alpaufzug" when 350 cows are driven upward on the narrow seam path through the cliff to the summer pasture on the Engstligenalp in early summer. • Engstligenalp: plateau at elevation • The town's church, with early-20th-century glassworks by Augusto Giacometti. • Our Chalet – A Guiding world centre and an international meeting place for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. Cultural events include: • World Cup Men's alpine ski races (January) • the men's giant slalom course is one of the most challenging on the World Cup circuit. • Vogellisi-Festival (Live music, July) • Vogellisi Lauf (Mountain running race in July) • Kammermusic-festival (Chamber music, July) • Langlauf night – every 30 December – Cross Country races on the main street of town ==Demographics==

Adelboden has a population of (). According to a 2010 census, 6.9% of the population consists of foreign nationals residing in the area. The population has experienced a slight decrease of -0.2% between the years 2000–2010. This change can be attributed to a decrease in migration of −1.2%, while births and deaths accounted for 2.2%. According to data from the year 2000, the majority of the population (3,453 individuals, making up 95.0% of the population) speak German as their first language. Serbo-Croatian ranks as the second most prevalent language spoken, with 36 speakers (1.0%), followed by Portuguese with 34 speakers (0.9%). In addition, 29 people reported speaking French, while Italian and Romansh were cited by 17 and 6 individuals, respectively. , there were 478 households that consist of only one person and 152 households with five or more people. , a total of 1,347 apartments (41.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,722 apartments (53.4%) were seasonally occupied and 154 apartments (4.8%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 5.3 new units per 1000 residents. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1020 height:210 PlotArea = top:10 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:3700 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:700 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:140 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:1051 text:"1,051" bar:1850 from:start till:1513 text:"1,513" bar:1860 from:start till:1536 text:"1,536" bar:1870 from:start till:1552 text:"1,552" bar:1880 from:start till:1649 text:"1,649" bar:1888 from:start till:1580 text:"1,580" bar:1900 from:start till:1564 text:"1,564" bar:1910 from:start till:2163 text:"2,163" bar:1920 from:start till:2045 text:"2,045" bar:1930 from:start till:2417 text:"2,417" bar:1941 from:start till:2659 text:"2,659" bar:1950 from:start till:2873 text:"2,873" bar:1960 from:start till:2881 text:"2,881" bar:1970 from:start till:3326 text:"3,326" bar:1980 from:start till:3276 text:"3,276" bar:1990 from:start till:3347 text:"3,347" bar:2000 from:start till:3634 text:"3,634" ==Languages==

The language is Adelbodnertütsch, which belongs to the Berner Oberland dialects with some influences from Valais dialects. It is also classified as part of the Highest Alemannic language group. Most of the population () speaks German (95.0%), with Serbo-Croat the second most common ( 1.0%), and Portuguese third ( 0.9%). ==Government==

Legislation is adopted by the biannual general assembly. Executive is the local council with nine members, all of whom are honorary. In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 41.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) (20%), the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (10.4%) and the Evangelical People's Party (EVP) (9%). In the federal election, a total of 1,673 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 61.4%. ==Economics==

Adelboden has a mixture of agriculture, local industry (wood building companies, mineral water source) and tourism. People work in tourism, (approximately 490 persons), other services (approx. 500 persons), construction industry (approx. 310 persons), automobile industry (approx. 30 persons), mineral water source (approx. 45 persons) and agriculture (full-time approx. 45 persons), taxidermy (full-time approx. 16 persons). , Adelboden had an unemployment rate of 1.29%. , there were a total of 2,084 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 366 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 133 businesses involved in this sector. 617 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 57 businesses in this sector. 1,101 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 150 businesses in this sector. , there were 224 workers who commuted into the municipality and 211 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.1 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. Of the working population, 9.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 38.1% used a private car. Adelboden has an unemployment rate of 1.8%. , there were 366 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 143 businesses involved in this sector. 601 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 57 businesses in this sector. 1098 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 153 businesses in this sector. ==Religion==

From the , 221 or 6.1% were Roman Catholic, while 2,406 or 66.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 37 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.02% of the population), there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 1,173 individuals (or about 32.28% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish, and 69 (or about 1.90% of the population) who were Islamic. There was 1 person who was Buddhist and 4 individuals who belonged to another church. 72 (or about 1.98% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 234 individuals (or about 6.44% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Tourism and sport==

and Doris Ogilvie on wooden skis in Adelboden 1938 Tourism in Adelboden is family-oriented and accommodations include 24 hotels (1,291 beds), 3,800 vacation homes (15,200 beds), 28 group accommodations (1,830 beds), three camp sites, and 40 restaurants. There are of summer hiking trails, from sedate walks to alpine climbing routes. Numerous mountain railways lead up to the mountains. Additional activities are: numerous mountain bike routes; and model aircraft construction on Hahnenmoospass with a workshop, and wind and landing opportunities. In the winter, Adelboden has ski runs of all degrees of difficulty, including the World Cup giant slalom run on the Chuenisbärgli, and cross-country ski trails. There are of winter hiking trails. For snowboarders there are freeride and freestyle runs. Adelboden's giant slalom and slalom races are considered classic events on the World Cup circuit and were scheduled for 7–8 January in 2017. In recent years, the story of a mythical medicine woman named Vogellisi has increasingly been adopted as the symbol or mascot for a variety of touristic activities and souvenirs. ==Climate==

According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Adelboden has a Marine West Coast Climate, abbreviated "Cfb" on climate maps with mild, rainy summers with cool nights and long, moderately cold and very snowy winters. Sunshine peaks during summertime though Adelboden is very cloudy year round, especially during winter. ==Transportation==

Adelboden has only one incoming road connecting from Frutigen which connects via Spiez to the A6 and Bern. There is no transit traffic. Frutigen is a train station of the Lötschberg line, connecting to Bern and Brig; it is connected to Adelboden by regular post bus services. The Bunderchrinde Pass connects Adelboden to Kandersteg to the east, whilst the Hahnenmoos Pass provides a connection into the valley of Lenk to the west. There is an old mountain pass route via Engstligenalp and Chindbetti Pass to the Gemmi Pass and into the Valais. None of these passes carries roads, although they were used as trade routes in the past. Today, the Bunderchrinde and Hahnenmoos passes form part of the Alpine Pass Route, a long-distance hiking trail across Switzerland between Sargans and Montreux that passes through the village. ==Education==

In Adelboden about 1,452 or (40.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 240 or (6.6%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 240 who completed tertiary schooling, 71.3% were Swiss men, 21.3% were Swiss women, 4.2% were non-Swiss men and 3.3% were non-Swiss women. During the 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 447 students attending classes in Adelboden. There were 4 kindergarten classes with a total of 56 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 7.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 12.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 13 primary classes and 245 students. Of the primary students, 4.9% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 4.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 7 lower secondary classes with a total of 146 students. There were 3.4% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 4.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language. , there was one student in Adelboden who came from another municipality, while 52 residents attended schools outside the municipality. In Adelboden there is a primary school, middle-school and a secondary school; the nearest special secondary school is in Frutigen. Schools in Adelboden: There are four primary schools officially in the Adelboden school district, three middle schools (Realschule), and a secondary school (Sekundarschule). The nearest special secondary school is 20 minutes down the mountain in Frutigen and the nearest high schools (Gymnasiums) are in Thun and Interlaken. ==Notable people==

A number of notable persons in cross-country skiing, mountaineering, and alpine skiing were born in Adelboden: • Rolf Zurbrügg, Swiss national ski mountain trainer • Frieda Dänzer, former Alpine skier and 1958 world champion • Annerösli Zryd, 1970 world champion in Alpine skiing • Marlies Oester, former alpine skier who competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics. Italian/British writer Rafael Sabatini died in Abelboden and is buried there. ==See also==