Grandval, Switzerland

The oldest evidence of a settlement in the area is a reasonable well preserved section of a Roman road. Around 640 what became the Moutier-Grandval Abbey was established outside the village of Grandval. The town of Moutier then developed around the Abbey complex. Grandval is first mentioned around 900 as Grandemvallem. The village chapel of St. Martin was first mentioned in 962. By the 14th century it had become the parish church for Grandval parish, which included most of the communities in the Grand Val/Moutier valley. In 1531 the village, its church and the parish converted to the new faith of the Protestant Reformation. Beginning in 1663 the church was almost constantly under construction for several centuries. Major reconstruction projects happened in 1701-06 and 1927. For most of its history, the village of Grandval was owned by the Abbey. After the 1797 French victory and the Treaty of Campo Formio, Grandval became part of the French Département of Mont-Terrible. Three years later, in 1800 it became part of the Département of Haut-Rhin. After Napoleon's defeat and the Congress of Vienna, Grandval was assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815. Until about 1900, the local economy was still dominated by agriculture with a few cottage industries that manufactured pottery, watch parts and arquebuses. This began to change with the growth of the machinery manufacturing industry in nearby Moutier and the construction of the Solothurn-Moutier railroad in 1904-08. A number of industrial factories settled in Crémines and remained. Today over half of the working population is in the industrial sector. ==Geography==

Grandval has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 44.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 50.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 4.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.5% is unproductive land. During the same year, housing and buildings made up 2.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.3%. Out of the forested land, 44.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 6.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 9.6% is used for growing crops and 13.2% is pastures and 21.0% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per fess Gules and Or a Letter G counterchanged. ==Demographics==

Grandval has a population () of . , 5.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of -2.9%. Migration accounted for -2.9%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.3%. Most of the population () speaks French (315 or 85.6%) as their first language, German is the second most common (44 or 12.0%) and Italian is the third (3 or 0.8%). There is 1 person who speaks Romansh. Of the population in the municipality, 104 or about 28.3% were born in Grandval and lived there in 2000. There were 141 or 38.3% who were born in the same canton, while 76 or 20.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 33 or 9.0% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 42 households that consist of only one person and 11 households with five or more people. , a total of 136 apartments (84.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 20 apartments (12.3%) were seasonally occupied and 6 apartments (3.7%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.9 new units per 1000 residents. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:35 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:430 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:90 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:18 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1755 from:start till:132 text:"132" bar:1850 from:start till:261 text:"261" bar:1860 from:start till:288 text:"288" bar:1870 from:start till:292 text:"292" bar:1880 from:start till:286 text:"286" bar:1888 from:start till:294 text:"294" bar:1900 from:start till:287 text:"287" bar:1910 from:start till:314 text:"314" bar:1920 from:start till:296 text:"296" bar:1930 from:start till:319 text:"319" bar:1941 from:start till:326 text:"326" bar:1950 from:start till:370 text:"370" bar:1960 from:start till:393 text:"393" bar:1970 from:start till:426 text:"426" bar:1980 from:start till:371 text:"371" bar:1990 from:start till:346 text:"346" bar:2000 from:start till:368 text:"368" ==Heritage sites of national significance==

The Maison De La Dîme and the Maison du Banneret Wisard are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. ==Politics==

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 29.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were another local party (18.7%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (14.9%) and the Green Party (9%). In the federal election, a total of 108 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 40.3%. ==Economy==

, Grandval had an unemployment rate of 2.23%. , there were a total of 92 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 22 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 10 businesses involved in this sector. 32 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 6 businesses in this sector. 38 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 8 businesses in this sector. , there were 27 workers who commuted into the municipality and 122 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.5 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 66 workers (71.0% of the 93 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Grandval. Of the working population, 13.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 50.5% used a private car. For comparison, the rate for the entire canton in the same year, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide rate was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively. In 2009 there were a total of 164 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 40 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 4 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Grandval was 98,070 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF. In 2011 a total of 0.6% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government. ==Religion==

From the , 195 or 53.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 96 or 26.1% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there were 28 individuals (or about 7.61% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 3 (or about 0.82% of the population) who were Islamic. 35 (or about 9.51% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 11 individuals (or about 2.99% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Grandval about 51.1% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 8.1% have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). During the 2011-12 school year, there were a total of 35 students attending classes in Grandval. There were no kindergarten classes and one primary class with 16 students. Of the primary students, 18.8% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 12.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there was one lower secondary class with a total of 19 students. 5.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language. , there were a total of 55 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 15 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 40 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 46 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==References==