Bex

Bex is first mentioned in 574 as in Baccis. To provide wood for the salt works in Roche, in 1695 a forest was planted in the Joux Verte gorge. Starting in the 16th century, natural evaporation was replaced by boiling to speed up salt production. The first tunnels were dug in 1684 to find new salt sources. Salt deposits were discovered in Le Bévieux and Les Devens (both part of the municipality of Bex) and Aigle. The mine at Le Bévieux was still in operation at the beginning of the 21st century. ==Geography==

Bex has an area, , of . Of this area, or 26.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 33.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 4.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.9% is either rivers or lakes and or 34.2% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.6%. Out of the forested land, 28.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 4.3% is used for growing crops and 5.8% is pastures, while 2.0% is used for orchards or vine crops and 14.7% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 9.4% is unproductive vegetation, 23.1% is too rocky for vegetation and 1.7% of the land is covered by glaciers. Bex sits on the east side of the Rhone River in a wide valley surrounded on the east by the Pays d'en Haut and the Bernese Alps and on the west by the Chablais Alps. The municipality is located in the Aigle district, along the Avançon river. It stretches from the banks of the Rhone () to the Alps. It includes most of the highest mountains of the canton: Les Diablerets peak (), Grand Muveran, Dent Favre and Dent de Morcles. The municipality consists of the town of Bex and the hamlets of Le Châtel, Les Dévens, Le Chêne, Fenalet, Les Posses, Le Bévieux, Frenières and Les Plans-sur-Bex. Famous ski resorts are nearby, notably Villars-sur-Ollon and Gryon, a few kilometres above the town. Bex is also connected to Les Diablerets by the mountain pass Col de la Croix. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, a ram Argent rampant, in chief dexter a mullet of eight Or. ==Demographics==

Bex has a population () of . , 26.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 12.8%. It has changed at a rate of 13.7% due to migration and at a rate of 0.5% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (5,008 or 83.8%), with Albanian being second most common (232 or 3.9%) and German being third (203 or 3.4%). There are 149 people who speak Italian and 2 people who speak Romansh. , there were 2,346 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,868 married individuals, 409 widows or widowers and 350 individuals who are divorced. , there were 2,403 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. there were 3,346 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 1,068. There were 176 single room apartments and 716 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 2,334 apartments (69.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 675 apartments (20.2%) were seasonally occupied and 337 apartments (10.1%) were empty. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1140 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:6000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:1200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:240 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1722 from:start till:1550 text:"1,550" bar:1764 from:start till:2063 text:"2,063" bar:1803 from:start till:2298 text:"2,298" bar:1850 from:start till:3091 text:"3,091" bar:1860 from:start till:3552 text:"3,552" bar:1870 from:start till:3707 text:"3,707" bar:1880 from:start till:3921 text:"3,921" bar:1888 from:start till:4373 text:"4,373" bar:1900 from:start till:4561 text:"4,561" bar:1910 from:start till:4772 text:"4,772" bar:1920 from:start till:4609 text:"4,609" bar:1930 from:start till:4433 text:"4,433" bar:1941 from:start till:4264 text:"4,264" bar:1950 from:start till:4762 text:"4,762" bar:1960 from:start till:4667 text:"4,667" bar:1970 from:start till:5069 text:"5,069" bar:1980 from:start till:4843 text:"4,843" bar:1990 from:start till:5727 text:"5,727" bar:2000 from:start till:5973 text:"5,973" ==Heritage sites of national significance==

The Church Bell Tower, the Salt Mining Complex, the Fortifications de l’Arzillier and the Bridge over the Rhone River (which is shared with St-Maurice in Valais) are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire village of Les Posses and the Le Bévieux area are both part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. File:Eglisebex02.JPG | Church Bell Tower File:Bex, saline - vd ch.jpg | Salt Mining Complex ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 30.69% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (27.02%), the FDP (12.65%) and the Green Party (11.75%). In the federal election, a total of 1,565 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 43.1%. ==Economy==

, Bex had an unemployment rate of 6.9%. , there were 234 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 66 businesses involved in this sector. 746 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 72 businesses in this sector. 1,157 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 196 businesses in this sector. , there were 1,077 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,294 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.2 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 4.5% of the workforce coming into Bex are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.0% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 13.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 61.6% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 1,986 or 33.2% were Roman Catholic, while 2,356 or 39.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 44 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.74% of the population), there were 5 individuals (or about 0.08% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 60 individuals (or about 1.00% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 462 (or about 7.73% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 12 individuals who were Buddhist, 41 individuals who were Hindu and 21 individuals who belonged to another church. 554 (or about 9.28% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 432 individuals (or about 7.23% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Weather==

Bex has an average of 123.3 days of rain or snow per year and on average receives of precipitation. The wettest month is August during which time Bex receives an average of of rain or snow. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 11.5 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is June, with an average of 12.4, but with only of rain or snow. The driest month of the year is February with an average of of precipitation over 9.4 days. ==Education==

In Bex about 1,897 or (31.8%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 523 or (8.8%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 523 who completed tertiary schooling, 52.6% were Swiss men, 29.1% were Swiss women, 11.5% were non-Swiss men and 6.9% were non-Swiss women. During the school year, the district provided pre-school care for a total of 205 children of which 96 children (46.8%) received subsidized pre-school care. There were 378 students in the primary school program, which lasts four years. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 356 students in those schools. There were also 56 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school. , there were 105 students in Bex who came from another municipality, while 189 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==Transportation and railroads==

train passing through the Rue Centrale Bex is a stop on the Swiss Federal Railways' (SBB/CFF) main-line Simplon route from Italy (Domodossola) and southern Switzerland to Lausanne then on to Geneva. Bex is also the terminus of the Bex–Villars–Bretaye railway (BVB), which is one of four railways of the local TPC company, the Transports Publics du Chablais. The BVB runs east from Bex to Villars and Bretaye. At nearby Aigle, connections are available at the Aigle SBB/CFF station to the other three very scenic narrow gauge railways of TPC. Transports Publics du Chablais uses the motto "Depuis plus de cent ans et contre toute attente, des lignes des TPC réunissent plaine et montagne, Vaud et Valais, ville et campagne, terres catholiques et protestantes." Translated roughly: "For over 100 years and contrary to all expectations, the railways of TPC have joined plain and mountain, town and country, of the Vaud and Valais districts of Switzerland, land of both Catholics and Protestants." The ASD, the AL, and the BVB railways operate within the Canton of Vaud. The AOMC also operates into the Canton of Valais when it leaves Aigle and crosses the Rhone river to reach Monthey and Champéry. The TPC "motto" refers to the religious composition and history of the region historically known as the Chablais. In 1846-7 the Valais canton attempted to secede from Switzerland with the intention of joining a Catholic confederation of cantons called the Sonderbund, but this was put down by Swiss Federal troops in the brief and relatively bloodless Sonderbund civil war. ==Personalities==

• Marie-Louise Dreier (born 1936), poet • Catherine Mabillard (born 1964), ski mountaineer and marathon mountain biker • Henri François Pittier (1857–1950), geographer and botanist ==Twin towns – sister cities==

Bex is twinned with: • Tuttlingen, Germany ==References==