Meiringen

Meiringen
Meiringen
Meiringen -
Country Switzerland Coat of Arms of Meiringen
Canton Bern
District Interlaken-Oberhasli
46°43.643′N 8°11.24′E / 46.727383°N 8.18733°E / 46.727383; 8.18733Coordinates: 46°43.643′N 8°11.24′E / 46.727383°N 8.18733°E / 46.727383; 8.18733
Population 4,583 (Dec 2010)[1]
- Density 113 /km2 (292 /sq mi)
Area  40.7 km2 (15.7 sq mi)
Elevation 595 m (1,952 ft)
Postal code 3860
SFOS number 0785
Surrounded by Brienz, Brienzwiler, Grindelwald, Hasliberg, Innertkirchen, Lungern (OW), Schattenhalb
Website www.meiringen.ch
SFSO statistics
Meiringen is located in Switzerland
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Meiringen
View map of Meiringen
Statue of Holmes outside the English Church
Street sign outside Holmes museum

Meiringen is a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

Contents

Sights

The town is famous for the Reichenbach Falls, a spectacular water fall that was the setting for the fictional presumed death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes. A museum dedicated to Holmes is located in the basement of the deconsecrated English Church, located in what has now been named Conan Doyle Place.

The town is also known for its claim to have invented meringue.

History

Meiringen is first mentioned in 1234 as Magiringin.[2]

Geography

Meiringen in 1900

Meiringen has an area, as of 2009, of 40.59 square kilometers (15.67 sq mi). Of this area, 17.75 km2 (6.85 sq mi) or 43.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 13.27 km2 (5.12 sq mi) or 32.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 3.04 km2 (1.17 sq mi) or 7.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.53 km2 (0.20 sq mi) or 1.3% is either rivers or lakes and 6.09 km2 (2.35 sq mi) or 15.0% is unproductive land.[3]

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.3%. Out of the forested land, 29.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.3% is used for growing crops and 17.8% is pastures and 22.5% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 5.6% is unproductive vegetation and 9.4% is too rocky for vegetation.[3]

Demographics

Meiringen has a population (as of 31 December 2010) of 4,583.[1] As of 2007, 13.4% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -2.8%. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (88.7%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common ( 2.5%) and Portuguese being third ( 1.6%).

In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 41.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (25.2%), the FDP (12.5%) and the Green Party (11.3%).

The age distribution of the population (as of 2000) is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.9% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 58.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.2%. In Meiringen about 70.6% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule).

Meiringen has an unemployment rate of 1.43%. As of 2005, there were 208 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 75 businesses involved in this sector. 419 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 52 businesses in this sector. 1797 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 201 businesses in this sector.[4] The historical population is given in the following table:[2]

year population
1764 964
1850 2,358
1900 3,077
1950 3,640
1980 4,072
2000 4,803

Transportation

Meiringen is served by Meiringen railway station on the Brünigbahn narrow-gauge railway from Interlaken to Lucerne. This station is also the terminus of the local Meiringen-Innertkirchen Bahn narrow-gauge railway, which links the town with the nearby village of Innertkirchen. The lower terminus of the Reichenbachfall-Bahn funicular, which links the town to the Reichenbach Falls, is located at Willigen, some 20 minutes walk, or a 6 minute bus ride, from Meiringen station.

One of three main air bases of the Swiss Air Force is located in Unterbach, near Meiringen. Among other aircraft, it operates F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets.

Weather

Climate data for Meiringen
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 1.8
(35.2)
4.4
(39.9)
8.4
(47.1)
13
(55)
17.7
(63.9)
20.4
(68.7)
22.6
(72.7)
21.6
(70.9)
18.8
(65.8)
14
(57)
7.3
(45.1)
2.3
(36.1)
12.7
Daily mean °C (°F) −2.2
(28.0)
−0.2
(31.6)
3.1
(37.6)
7.3
(45.1)
11.8
(53.2)
14.6
(58.3)
16.7
(62.1)
15.8
(60.4)
13.1
(55.6)
8.7
(47.7)
3.1
(37.6)
−1.3
(29.7)
7.5
Average low °C (°F) −5.5
(22.1)
−4.1
(24.6)
−1.4
(29.5)
2
(36)
5.8
(42.4)
8.7
(47.7)
10.7
(51.3)
10.3
(50.5)
7.9
(46.2)
4.1
(39.4)
−0.7
(30.7)
−4.5
(23.9)
2.8
Precipitation mm (inches) 96
(3.78)
93
(3.66)
107
(4.21)
99
(3.9)
122
(4.8)
151
(5.94)
148
(5.83)
165
(6.5)
89
(3.5)
86
(3.39)
97
(3.82)
97
(3.82)
1,351
(53.19)
Avg. precipitation days 11 10.4 12.2 11.6 14.1 14.8 13.7 14.3 9.6 8.8 10.7 10.7 141.9
Source: MeteoSchweiz [5]

References

  1. ^ a b Swiss Federal Statistical Office - STAT-TAB, online database – Datenwürfel für Thema 01.2 - Bevölkerungsstand und -bewegung (German) accessed 29 September
  2. ^ a b Meiringen in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
  3. ^ a b Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics 2009 data (German) accessed 25 March 2010
  4. ^ Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 10-Jul-2009
  5. ^ "Temperature and Precipitation Average Values-Table, 1961-1990" (in German, French, Italian). Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss. http://www.meteoswiss.admin.ch/web/de/klima/klima_schweiz/tabellen.html. Retrieved 8 May 2009. 

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  • Meiringen — Original name in latin Meiringen Name in other language Majringen, Meiringen, Meyringen, mai lin gen, Майринген State code CH Continent/City Europe/Zurich longitude 46.72709 latitude 8.1872 altitude 599 Population 4652 Date 2013 02 28 …   Cities with a population over 1000 database

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