Canton of Solothurn
The canton of Solothurn canton of Soleure is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the northwest of Switzerland; the capital is Solothurn. Foundation of the village of Salodurum in the time of the Roman emperor Tiberius; the territory of the canton comprises land acquired by the former town in the Middle Ages. For that reason the shape of the canton is irregular and includes two exclaves along the French border, separated from the rest of the canton by Basel-Land, which form separate districts of the canton. In 1481, the canton became a member of the military alliance of the former Swiss confederation. At the end of the Reformation, Solothurn maintained its Catholic religion. Between 1798 and 1803 the canton was part of the Helvetic Republic. In 1803 Solothurn was one of the 19 Swiss cantons. In 1830, the population rebelled against the aristocratic regime and the canton became liberal-democratic. Though the population was Roman Catholic, Solothurn did not join the Catholic separatist movement in 1845-7.
The federal constitutions of 1848 and 1874 were approved. The current constitution of the canton dates from 1987; the canton is located in the north-west of Switzerland. To the west and south lie the cantons of Jura and Bern, to the east is Aargau. To the north the canton is bounded by the canton of Basel-Landschaft. Parts of two of the districts are located along the border of France; the lands are drained by its tributaries. The landscape is flat, but it includes the foothills of the Jura massif. Part of this, the massif of the Weissenstein, overlooks Solothurn and the Mitteland from the north and has views of the Bernese Alps; the flat lands are a plain created by the Aare river. The total area of the canton is 791 km². From 2005, Solothurn's ten districts are merged pairwise into five electoral districts, termed Amtei. From 2005, the districts have only a statistical significance. Bucheggberg, Amtei Wasseramt-Bucheggberg Dorneck, Amtei Dorneck-Thierstein Gäu, Amtei Thal-Gäu Gösgen, Amtei Olten-Gösgen Lebern, Amtei Solothurn-Lebern Olten, Amtei Olten-Gösgen Solothurn, Amtei Solothurn-Lebern Thal, Amtei Thal-Gäu Thierstein, Amtei Dorneck-Thierstein Wasseramt, Amtei Wasseramt-Bucheggberg There are 125 municipalities in the canton.
The population is German-speaking. About 44% of the population are Roman Catholic, with most of the remainder being Protestants; the population of the canton is 271,432. As of 2007, the population included 46,898 foreigners, or about 18.7% of the total population. Up to the 19th century agriculture was the main economic activity in the canton. Agriculture is still of importance, but manufacturing and the service industry are now more significant; the industries of the canton are specialized in watches, textiles, paper and auto parts. Until the manufacturing of shoes was an important economic activity, but global competition thought that the Swiss canton was not competitive enough; the canton is home to the Gösgen Nuclear Power Plant near Däniken which started operation in 1979. ^a FDP before 2009, FDP. The Liberals after 2009 ^ b" *" indicates; the canton has good connections both by rail and by road. There is a railway junction at Olten with direct trains to Geneva, Zurich and the Ticino via Lucerne.
Official site Official statistics
Jura (department)
Jura is a department of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in the east of France named after the Jura Mountains. Jura belonged to the Free County of Burgundy, known in French as the Franche-Comté. Dole was the capital until the region was conquered by Louis XIV and the capital was moved to Besançon. Dole is now a sub-prefecture, of Jura; as early as the 13th century, inhabitants of the southern two-thirds of Jura spoke a dialect of Arpitan language. It continued to be spoken in rural areas into the 20th century. Jura is one of the original 83 departments, it being the created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790, it was created from part of the former province of Franche-Comté. The prefecture is Lons-le-Saunier. Jura is one of eight departments of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region and is surrounded by the French departments of Doubs, Haute-Saône, Côte-d'Or, Saône-et-Loire, Ain, as well as the Swiss canton of Vaud on the east; the Jura mountains are not craggy and rocky like the Alps. Many lakes can be found throughout the Jura - the largest natural lake being Lac de Chalain, measuring 3 km long and 1 km wide.
Lac de Vouglans was formed after the building of a hydro-electric dam. It is one of the largest man-made lakes in France; the President of the General Council is Jean Raquin. The climate of the Jura varies by elevation; the lower valleys are temperate and pleasant, but the high mountain valleys have bitterly cold winters. Jura is a wine-growing region; the Jura wines are distinctive and unusual wines, such as vin jaune, made by a similar process to sherry, developing under a flor of yeast. This is made from the local Savagnin grape variety. Other grape varieties include Poulsard and Chardonnay; the department contains no industrial cities: the few towns function as administrative and commercial centres serving Jura's rural economy. In the absence of large-scale industrial enterprises, small artisanal businesses play an important role; the Jura CFA recorded 752 current apprenticeships in trades such as building, butchery, hair dressing, car repairing and other non-factory based occupations. The Jura mountains provide ample opportunities for hiking and other winter sports.
Cantons of the Jura department Communes of the Jura department Arrondissements of the Jura department Prefecture website General council website Tourism website Tourism Information
Mountain range
A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills ranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form and alignment that have arisen from the same cause an orogeny. Mountain ranges are formed by a variety of geological processes, but most of the significant ones on Earth are the result of plate tectonics. Mountain ranges are found on many planetary mass objects in the Solar System and are a feature of most terrestrial planets. Mountain ranges are segmented by highlands or mountain passes and valleys. Individual mountains within the same mountain range do not have the same geologic structure or petrology, they may be a mix of different orogenic expressions and terranes, for example thrust sheets, uplifted blocks, fold mountains, volcanic landforms resulting in a variety of rock types. Most geologically young mountain ranges on the Earth's land surface are associated with either the Pacific Ring of Fire or the Alpide Belt.
The Pacific Ring of Fire includes the Andes of South America, extends through the North American Cordillera along the Pacific Coast, the Aleutian Range, on through Kamchatka, Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, to New Zealand. The Andes is 7,000 kilometres long and is considered the world's longest mountain system; the Alpide belt includes Indonesia and Southeast Asia, through the Himalaya, Caucasus Mountains, Balkan Mountains fold mountain range, the Alps, ends in the Spanish mountains and the Atlas Mountains. The belt includes other European and Asian mountain ranges; the Himalayas contain the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, 8,848 metres high and traverses the border between China and Nepal. Mountain ranges outside these two systems include the Arctic Cordillera, the Urals, the Appalachians, the Scandinavian Mountains, the Great Dividing Range, the Altai Mountains and the Hijaz Mountains. If the definition of a mountain range is stretched to include underwater mountains the Ocean Ridges form the longest continuous mountain system on Earth, with a length of 65,000 kilometres.
The mountain systems of the earth are characterized by a tree structure, where mountain ranges can contain sub-ranges. The sub-range relationship is expressed as a parent-child relationship. For example, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Blue Ridge Mountains are sub-ranges of the Appalachian Mountains. Equivalently, the Appalachians are the parent of the White Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains, the White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains are children of the Appalachians; the parent-child expression extends to the sub-ranges themselves: the Sandwich Range and the Presidential Range are children of the White Mountains, while the Presidential Range is parent to the Northern Presidential Range and Southern Presidential Range. The position of mountains influences climate, such as snow; when air masses move up and over mountains, the air cools producing orographic precipitation. As the air descends on the leeward side, it warms again and is drier, having been stripped of much of its moisture.
A rain shadow will affect the leeward side of a range. Mountain ranges are subjected to erosional forces which work to tear them down; the basins adjacent to an eroding mountain range are filled with sediments which are buried and turned into sedimentary rock. Erosion is at work while the mountains are being uplifted until the mountains are reduced to low hills and plains; the early Cenozoic uplift of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado provides an example. As the uplift was occurring some 10,000 feet of Mesozoic sedimentary strata were removed by erosion over the core of the mountain range and spread as sand and clays across the Great Plains to the east; this mass of rock was removed as the range was undergoing uplift. The removal of such a mass from the core of the range most caused further uplift as the region adjusted isostatically in response to the removed weight. Rivers are traditionally believed to be the principal cause of mountain range erosion, by cutting into bedrock and transporting sediment.
Computer simulation has shown that as mountain belts change from tectonically active to inactive, the rate of erosion drops because there are fewer abrasive particles in the water and fewer landslides. Mountains on other planets and natural satellites of the Solar System are isolated and formed by processes such as impacts, though there are examples of mountain ranges somewhat similar to those on Earth. Saturn's moon Titan and Pluto, in particular exhibit large mountain ranges in chains composed of ices rather than rock. Examples include the Mithrim Montes and Doom Mons on Titan, Tenzing Montes and Hillary Montes on Pluto; some terrestrial planets other than Earth exhibit rocky mountain ranges, such as Maxwell Montes on Venus taller than any on Earth and Tartarus Montes on Mars, Jupiter's moon Io has mountain ranges formed from tectonic processes including Boösaule Montes, Dorian Montes, Hi'iaka Montes and Euboea Montes. Peakbagger Ranges Home Page Bivouac.com
Parc naturel régional du Haut-Jura
The parc naturel régional du Haut-Jura is a French regional natural park located in the southwest of the Jura Mountain Range in France, on the French-Swiss border. The park was created February 10, 1986, at that time comprised 37 towns; as of 2005, that count is now 113 towns, with a total population of 71,000 inhabitants. The park covers an area of 165,000 hectares across three French departments: Ain and Jura. Entry towns situated at the park boundaries are not part of the park themselves, but due to their geographic locations are important points of entry into the park; these towns are Divonne-les-Bains, Bellegarde-sur-Valserine and the Community of Communes of Oyonnax. The park is managed by a bureau composed of a president, nine vice presidents, twelve members, it is not managed according to geographic entities but rather according to five thematic ones: helping to preserve the natural environment and the biotopes through sustainable development. There are 105 towns, or communes, that are members of the regional park, of which 25 are in Ain, 12 are in Doubs and 67 are in the Department of Jura.
There are 5 associated communes, one in Doubs and 4 in Jura. The 4 communes that remain in the total count are three entry towns that have part of the town in the park (Divonne-les-Bains and Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, the town of Champagnole, an entry town, but is outside of the park; the park is featured in numerous publications such as guidebooks, photographic portfolios, educational and scientific documents. The content of these publications is diverse and can be divided into 7 categories: Craft industry, folk know-how, housing Coffee table books Cultural heritage collections The environment Games and education Photographic portfolios Hiking and discovery Parc naturel régional du Haut-Jura official site
Savoie
Savoie is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France. Its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2016, it had a population of 429,681. Together with Haute-Savoie, Savoie is one of the two departments of the historic region of Savoy. Savoie is known for its contribution to French cuisine with culinary specialities such as fondue savoyarde, génépi, as well as various sorts of saucisson, it is accepted that Savoie takes its name from the Latin Sapaudia or Sabaudia, meaning land covered in fir trees. Savoie was long part of the states of Savoy, it was integrated into the Mont-Blanc department from 1792 to 1815. The province was annexed by France in 1860; the former Duchy of Savoy became the two departments of Haute-Savoie. Moûtiers, capital of the former province of Tarentaise Valley ceased to be the prefecture after a law passed on September 10, 1926. Savoie hosted the 1992 Winter Olympics, based in Albertville with ski events at Tarentaise and Beaufortain; the coat of arms for Savoie was used as a pattern for the flames in the official emblem of the games.
The other main alpine valley is the Maurienne, connected to the Tarentaise valley by two passes, the col de la Madeleine and the highest pass in Europe, the col de l'Iseran. The Maurienne valley was through the col du Mont Cenis, the major commercial route between France and Italy, it is one of the longest intra-alpine valleys in the Alps. Savoie is part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes région, it borders the departments of Haute-Savoie, Ain, Isère and Hautes-Alpes in addition to Aosta Valley and Metropolitan City of Turin in Italy. Much of Savoie is covered by mountains: Mont Blanc Massif Belledonne Massif Lauzière massif Aiguilles d'Arves Massif Massif des Cerces Aravis Range Mont Cenis Massif Bauges Massif Chartreuse Massif Vanoise Massif Beaufortain MassifThe department is crossed by the Isère river, which has its source in the Iseran pass, its two main lakes are Lac du Bourget and Lac d'Aiguebelette, one of the least polluted in France due to a 1976 law forbidding any use of motorboats on the lake.
According to the Chambéry chamber of commerce, close to 50% of the department's wealth comes from tourism. Each year, Savoie hosts over 30 million visitor-nights of tourists. Savoie profits from its natural resources with particular strengths in ore processing and hydroelectric power. Savoie had an exceptionally high export/import ratio of 214% in 2005, its exports rose to € 1.768 € 825 million in imports. Its leading exports were steel and electric and electronic components. Savoie is famous for its cows, which produce numerous cheeses, some of them are: Beaufort Savoie Gruyère Reblochon Tamié Tome des Bauges Tomme de SavoieNumerous wine grapes are grown in Savoie; the most famous wines are made of Pinot noir and Mondeuse grapes. Fruit production is the third largest component of agriculture in Savoie. Apples and pears are produced in the region and are well known for their qualities. Residents of Savoie are known as Savoyards, though they can be called Savoisiens or Savoyens. Main cities: Chambéry: pop.
56,835 Aix-les-Bains: pop. 27,095 Albertville: pop. 18,906 Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne: pop. 8,507 The "average" population density is not a good indicator: the valleys tend to be much more densely populated, whereas the mountains tend to be near-completely uninhabited. The Catholic Church in Savoie is divided into three dioceses: Chambéry, Tarentaise. Together, they form an archdiocese. Tourism, quite important to Savoie, began to develop towards the end of the 19th century summer oriented; the increase in the popularity of skiing in the 20th century made Savoie home to the largest number of ski hills in France, including many famous ones: Val-d'Isère Tignes Les Arcs La Plagne Courchevel Méribel Valmorel Les Menuires Val Thorens Les Saisies Savoie Grand Revard Bramans Bessans ValloireHydrotherapy, practised in the region since antiquity, is quite developed. There are four locations that are still active: Aix-les-Bains Challes-les-Eaux Brides-les-Bains La Léchère Savoy - Historical region House of Savoy - Ruling dynasty of Savoy from 1032 to 1860 Duchy of Savoy - Rulers of Savoy region from 1416 to 1720 Kingdom of Sardinia - 1720 to 1860.
French language Franco-Provençal language Communes of the Savoie department Arrondissements of the Savoie department Cantons of the Savoie department Chambéry - Capital Aix-les-Bains Lac du Bourget The largest lake in France. French wine - AOC wine of Savoie Savoy wine or Wine of Savoie Allobrogie General Council website Prefecture website Regional Tourism Agency Gallery Photos and pictures of Savoie Photos of Savoie mountains
La Chaux-de-Fonds
La Chaux-de-Fonds is a Swiss city of the district of La Chaux-de-Fonds in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura mountains at an altitude of 1000 m, a few kilometres south of the French border. After Geneva and Fribourg, it is the fourth largest city located in the Romandie, the French-speaking part of the country, with a population of 38,625; the city was founded in 1656. Its growth and prosperity is bound up with the watch-making industry, it is the most important centre of the watch making industry in the area known as the Watch Valley. Destroyed by a fire in 1794, La Chaux-de-Fonds was rebuilt following a grid street plan, is still original among Swiss cities, the only exception being the easternmost section of the city, spared of fire; this creates an obvious transition from the old section to the newer section. The roads in the original section are narrow and winding, which opens up to the grid pattern near the town square; the famous architect Le Corbusier, the writer Blaise Cendrars and the car maker Louis Chevrolet were born there.
La Chaux-de-Fonds is a renowned centre of Art nouveau. In 2009, La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle, its sister city, were jointly awarded UNESCO World Heritage status for their exceptional universal value; the watch making cities of La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle have jointly received recognition from UNESCO for their exceptional universal value. The Site's planning consists of two small cities located close to each other in the mountainous environment of the Swiss Jura. Due to the altitude and the lack of water the land is ill-suited to farming. Planning and buildings reflect the watch-making artisans need of rational organization. Rebuilt in the early 19th Century, after extensive fires, both towns owe their survival to the manufacturing and exports of watches, to which, in the 20th Century, was added the minute micromechanical industry. Along an open-ended scheme of parallel strips on which residential housing and workshops intermingle, the town's planned lay-out reflects the needs of the local watch-making culture that dates back to the 17th century, and, still alive today.
Both agglomerations present outstanding examples of mono-industrial manufacturing-towns, which are still well-preserved and active. The urban planning has accommodated the transition from the artisans’ production of a cottage industry to the more concentrated factory production of the late 19th and 20th centuries. In 1867 Karl Marx was describing La Chaux-de-Fonds as a “huge factory-town” in Das Kapital, where he analyzed the division of labour in the watch making industry of the Jura, it is the tenth Swiss Site to be awarded World Heritage status, joining others such as the Old City of Bern, the Rhaetian Railway and the Abbey and Convent of St. Gallen; the region was first inhabited around 10,000 years ago. A skull and other traces have been found in caves nearby. In the middle of the 14th century, the region was colonized from the southern Val-de-Ruz. La Chaux-de-Fonds is first mentioned in 1350 as la Chaz de Fonz. In 1378 it was mentioned as Chault de Font; the region was under the authority of the lords of Valangin.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, a second wave of colonization came from the so-called Clos de la Franchise. Agriculture was the main activity but the village remained small. In 1531 there were only about 35 people living there; the first church was built in 1528. By 1530, La Chaux-de-Fonds, like the rest of the Valangin lands, converted to the new Reformed faith; the Lord of Valanginian, René de Challant, fixed the boundaries of the parish in 1550. The church and parish provided a political structure and a small community of Valanginian citizens, free farmers and peasants grew up around the church. By 1615 there were 355 people living in the village. In 1616, the low and middle jurisdiction over La Chaux-de-Fonds moved to Le Locle and La Sagne, while the high court remained in Valanginian; the agriculture, supplemented by mills on the banks of the Doubs, continued to dominate. However, at the end of the 16th century, the city became an important crossroad between Neuchâtel, Franche-Comté and the Bishopric of Basel.
The community grew during the Thirty Years' War because of its strategic position for trade. Economic activity accelerated in the 18th century with the development of the city's lace and watchmaking industries. Pierre Jacquet-Droz, best known for his automata, was a prominent watchmaker of this era. In 1794, the city was devastated by fire. Charles-Henri Junod created the new city's plan in 1835, the city is now known for its "modern," grid-like plan, in comparison with most European cities' meandering streets; the central avenue is named the Avenue Léopold Robert. La Chaux-de-Fonds has an area, as of 2009, of 55.7 square kilometers. Of this area, 30.46 km2 or 54.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 15.52 km2 or 27.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 9.28 km2 or 16.7% is settled, 0.3 km2 or 0.5% is either rivers or lakes and 0.11 km2 or 0.2% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.6% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 8.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.6%.
While parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.1%. Out of the forested land, 24.2% of the total land area is forested and 3.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.4% is used for growing crops and 40.0% is pastures and 14.2% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in th
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