Kerns, Switzerland

Kerns is first mentioned in 1036 as Chernz though this mention is from a 14th Century copy of the original document. After 1101 it was normally mentioned as Chernes. ==Geography==

(1919) Kerns has an area, , of . Of this area, 46.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 28.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (21.9%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). The municipality is located on a terrace on the south-west slope of the Stanserhorn and Arvigrat mountains in the Sarneraatal and Melchtal valleys. It is the largest municipality in the canton. It consists of the village of Kerns with the sections of Dorf, Siebeneich, Wisserlen, Halten and Dietried, the hamlets of Sankt Niklausen and Melchtal as well as the resort of Melchsee-Frutt. ==Demographics==

Kerns has a population (as of ) of . , 8.0% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 7.9%. Most of the population () speaks German (96.2%), with Albanian being second most common ( 1.3%) and Portuguese being third ( 0.5%). mountain peak in the background the gender distribution of the population was 49.8% male and 50.2% female. there are 1,700 households, The historical population is given in the following table: ==Sights==

The main sights of Kerns are: chapel St. Niklausen, an old bridge (Hohe Brücke), and the pilgrimage church Melchtal. The ski area and mountain resort Melchsee-Frutt with the lake Melchsee is also part of the municipality of Kerns. The reservoir Tannensee is located above the village, at . ==References==